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Dix,  Morgan,  1827-1908. 
The  Sacramental  system 
considered  as  the  extension 


THE   SACRAMENTAL  SYSTEM 


^  (*      JUL  12  1922      * 

THE  BISHOP  PADDOCK  LECTURks{^uSffS'^^''^^,^'^y 


THE    SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM 


CONSIDERED    AS 


THE   EXTENSION    OF    THE    INCARNATION 


BY 

MORGAN 'diX,  S.T.D.,  D.C.L. 

RECTOR    OF    TRINITY    CHURCH,   NEW    YORK 


NEW    YORK 

LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND   CO. 
1893 


Copyright,  1S93, 
P.Y  LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND  CO. 


Press  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
Astor  Place,  New  York 


THE  BISHOP  PADDOCK  LECTURES. 


In  the  summer  of  the  year  1880,  George  A. 
Jarvis,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  moved  by  his  sense  of 
the  great  good  which  might  thereby  accrue  to  the 
cause  of  Christ,  and  to  the  Church  of  which  he 
was  an  ever-grateful  member,  gave  to  the  General 
Theological  Seminary  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  certain  securities,  exceeding  in  value  eleven 
thousand  dollars,  for  the  foundation  and  mainte- 
nance of  a  Lectureship  in  said  seminary. 

Out  of  love  to  a  former  pastor  and  enduring 
friend,  the  Right  Rev.  Benjamin  Henry  Paddock, 
D.D.,  Bishop  of  Massachusetts,  he  named  the 
foundation  "  The  Bishop  Paddock  Lecture- 
ship." 

The  deed  of  trust  declares  that  "  TJie  subjects  of 
the  lectures  shall  be  such  as  appertain  to  the 
defence  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  revealed 
in  the  Holy  Bible,  and  illustrated  in  the  Book  of 
Coimnon  Prayer,  against  the  varying  errors  of  the 
day,  whether  materialistic,  rationalistic,  or  profess- 


VI  THE   BISHOP   PADDOCK  LECTURES. 

edly  religious,  and  also  to  its  defence  and  confir- 
mation in  respect  of  such  central  truths  as  the 
Trinity,  the  Atonement,  Jjtstifieation,  and  the 
Inspiration  of  the  Word  of  God;  and  of  such  central 
facts  as  the  ChiircJis  Divi?ze  Order  and  Sacraments, 
her  historical  Reformation,  and  her  rights  and 
powers  as  a  pure  and  national  Church.  And  oxSx^x 
subjects  may  be  chosen  if  unanimously  approved 
by  the  Board  of  Appointment  as  being  both  timely 
and  also  within  the  true  intent  of  this  Lecture- 
ship." 

Under  the  appointment  of  the  Board  created  by 
the  trust,  the  Rev.  Morgan  Dix,  S.T.D.,  D.C.L., 
delivered  the  Lectures  for  the  year  1892,  contained 
in  this  volume. 


ANALYSIS. 


LECTURE   I. 

The  Basis  of  the  Sacramental  System. 

I.— INTRODUCTORY:  page 

1.  How  THE  Subject  of  these    Lectures  was 

Suggested, 3-5 

2.  Two  Mysteries  :  in  the  Order  of  Nature 

AND  IN  the  Order  of  Grace,     ...      5 

3.  Their  Close  Relation  to  each  Other,         .      6 

IL— ORIGIN    OF    THE    PHRASE,    "EXTENSION    OF 

THE    INCARNATION,"  .  .         .         .         .7 

III.— SACRAMENTAL      DOCTRINE       COEXTENSIVE 

WITH    HISTORIC   CHRISTIANITY,      .  .       8 

1.  Witnesses  to  this  Point: 

(a)  The  Fathers 8 

(d)  Luther,  and  the  Augsburg-  and  Westminster 

Confessions,   .......       8 

2.  Its  Basis  must  be  sought  in  the  Constitu- 

tion of  Things, 9 

3.  Its  Practical  and  Ideal  Sides,       .        .        .10 

4.  Its  Relations  to  Man  and  Nature,      .        .11 


Vlll  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

PAGE 

IV.— THE   NATURAL    WORLD:    ITS   MYSTERY,         .      12 

1.  Explanations  : 

{a)  Manichean  theory, 12 

{b)  Pantheistic  theory, 13 

ic)  Transcendental  notions,          .         .         .         .13 
{d)  Catholic  teaching, 13 

2.  Materialism  : 

{a)  Twin  brother  of  atheism,        .         .         .         .14 
{p)  And   yet    rendering  efficient   service   to  the 

truth, 14 

3.  Cardinal  Principles  of  Catholic  Doctrine 

Concerning  the  Origin  of  the  Universe,      15 

4.  Recent  Scientific  Discoveries  have  not  Im- 

paired   the    Force    of    the    Evidential 
Argument, 16,  17 

v.— PLACE   OF    MAN    IN    THE   UNIVERSE,  .         .18 

Statement  of  St.  Thomas  on  this  point,         .         .     19 

VI.— GOD,  IN  THE  INCARNATION,  TAKES  HIS 
PLACE,  AS  MAN,  IN  HIS  OWN  UNI- 
VERSE  20 

{a)  Christ  the  mundi  stinufta  et  coj7ipendiuvi,     .     20 
(<^)  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,      .         .     21 

VII.— REMEDIAL  AND    RESTORATIVE    EFFECT  OF 

THE  INCARNATION  IN  NATURE,  .  .  22 
{a)  Exposition  of  Romans,  viii.  19-23,  .  .  23,  24 
{b)  Relation  of  Christ  as  Man  to  Creation,  .  .  25 
{c)  Reciprocal  relation  of  Nature  to  Christ,  .  26 
{d)  Interchange  of  aid  and  help 27 


ANAL  YSIS.  IX 


VIII.— EXTENT    OF    THE    BENEFITS   OF    THE    IN- 
CARNATION,   28 

{a)  As  wide  as  the  universe  itself,         .         .         .29 
{b)  Brotherhood  of  man,  and  of  Christ  as  man, 

with  the  lower  creation,         .         .         .         .30 
{c)  Consequent  explanation  of  the   influence  ex- 
erted on  men  by  natural  phenomena,   .         .     31 

IX.— TWO   FINAL   CONSIDERATIONS. 

1.  The  Permanence  of  the  Body  of  Man,  and 

OF  Man  in  the  Body,   .        .        .        •       32,  33 
{a)  Pagan  and  Christian  ideas  on  this  point  con- 
trasted,          .     34 

2.  The  Final  Restoration  of  the  Heavens  and 

the  Earth, 35 

{a)  Scriptural  predictions, 36 

ip)  Views  of  fathers  and  theologians,  .         ,        37-39 


LECTURE   II. 

The  Sacramental  System  Coextensive  with  the  Life  and 
Experience  of  Mankind. 

[.—DESIGN  OF  THE  PRECEDING  LECTURE  TO 
SHOW  THE  REAL  BASIS  OF  THE  SACRA- 
MENTAL SYSTEM, 43 

{a)  No  valid  objection  that  it  is  hard  to  see  and 

describe,         .......     44 

ip)  Every  edifice   must  stand  on  a  basis,    .         .     44 
{c)  But  the  footings  are  not  made  to  be  seen,      .     44 
{d)  The  way  now  open   to  view  the  superstruct- 
"!■£. 45 


LEX  TEX  LECTURES. 


II.— POPULAR  HOSTILITY  TO  SACRAMENTAL  DOC- 
TRINE,       46 

{a)  Not  to  be  treated  as  a  transient  prejudice,     .     47 
{b)  But  the   result   of  confidence  in   philosophic 

idealism  and  exaggerated  spiritualism,         .     48 
{c)  Tendency  and  consequences,          .         .         -49 
{d)  The    sole    remed\'  is   the   acceptance  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Catholic  religion  on  the  In- 
carnation, and  the  bonds  between  God,  man, 
and  nature,  in  Christ, 50 

III —TRANSITION  TO   THE    SUPERSTRUCTURE,     .  52 

[a)  Catholic  theology  has  many  sides,  .         .  53 

{b)  The  practical  and  commonplace  side  of  the 

subject,  .......  53 

IV.— USE    OF   THE  WORD    "SIGN"    IN   ANGLICAN 

THEOLOGY, 54 

{a)  Definition  in  the  catechism,  .         .         .         -54 
{b)  The  use  of  signs  coextensive  with  the  visible 

creation,         .......     55 

{c)  And  all  signs  are  sacramental  in  their  char- 
acter,    . -55 


v.— THE     UNIVERSE    A    SYSTEM    OF    SIGNS    AND 
SACRAMENTS. 

{a)  Visible  forms  and  invisible  life, 
{b)  Impossible  to  tell  what  life  is, 
(r)  Canon  Mason's  statement, 
(<^  Admission  of  Darwin,     .... 
{e)  Life  a  profound    mystery,   and  the  world 
sign-system  all  through, 


. 

56 

57. 

.58 

. 

59 

a 

59 

ANAL  YSIS.  XI 

PAGE 

VI.— MAN  AN   INSTANCE,       .  ...         .         .  .60 

{a)  Body,  soul,  and  spirit,    .         .         .         .         .60 

{b)  His  existence  sacramental,     .         .         .         .61 

(c)  Daily  meals  sacramental,        .         ,         .         .61 
id)  The  alphabet,  books,  commercial  paper,  in- 
stances of  sign-system,  61 

{e)  Conclusions  as  to  life  of  the  soul,   .         ,         .62 

VII.— GOD     MAKES     HIMSELF     KNOWN,     NOT     DI- 
RECTLY,   BUT   BY  SIGNS,     .         .         .  .63 
{a)  Jesus  Christ  the  crowning-  illustration  of  the 

sacramental  principle,   .         .         .         .         -     ^'^ 
{b)  He  was  made  man,  that   man  might  know 

God, 64 

id)  God    in   Christ  the  sacrament  of  all   sacra- 
ments,   .         . 65 

VIIL— FURTHER    ILLUSTRATIONS    OF    THE   SUB- 
JECT. 

{a)  Man    in    the    body    cannot   be    reached   but 

through  the  body,  .         .         .         .         .66 

{b)  Philological  considerations  ;  the  classical  use 

o{\\\Q.  \\Tox6.  "  sacrame7itu)ii"        .         .         .66 

{c)  Sacraments  regarded   as  seals,  pledges,  and 

witnesses,        .......     67 

IX.— RECAPITULATION  OF  LECTURES   I.    AND    II.,     68 

X.— BREADTH    AND    GRANDEUR   OF   THE    SACRA- 
MENTAL  SYSTEM, 69 

{a)  Contrast  with  the  narrowness   and   poverty 

of  modern  thought,         .         .         .         .         .70 

{b)  Those  who  style  themselves  broad  are  really 

the  narrow,    .         .         .         .         .         .         .71 


Xll  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

PAGE 

XL— ZWINGLIANISM     THE    IMPLACABLE    FOE    OF 

SACRAMENTAL   DOCTRINE,         ...     72 
ia)  It  has  no  place  in  our  church  formularies,     .     72 
ib)  Confirmation   of  the  statement  from  sundry- 
sources,  .......     72 

{c)  Our  Offices,  Articles,  and  system  absolutely 

irreconcilable  with  Zwinglian  principles,      .     ']■}, 

LECTURE  III. 

The  Lesser  Sacraments. 


-NUMBER   OF    THE   SACRAMENTS, 
{a)  Latins  and  Eastern  Churches, 
{b)  Augsburg,  Luther,  Cranmer, 
\c)  Article  XXV., 
{d)  View  held  in  ancient  time,     . 


79 
79 
79 
80 
81 


II.— POSITION   OF   ANGLICAN   CHURCH. 

{a)  Two  great  sacraments,  .         .         .         .82 

{b)  Other  rites  of  the  same  class,  though  inferior 

in  grade, 83 

HI.— CONFIRMATION. 

{(X)  A    "  following   of  the  apostles,"  but  not  a 

corrupt  one, 84 

{b)  Low  notion  of  it  held  by  many,  .  .  .84 
{c)  But  really  a  sacramental  ordinance,  .  .  85 
{d)  And  rightly  called  a  minor  sacrament,  .     86 

IV.— HOLY   MATRIMONY. 

{a)  How  described  in  Prayer-book,      .  .  .87 

{b)  Called  a  sacrament  in  the  Homily,  .  .     87 

id)  Low  popular  ideas  about  it,    .         .  .  .88 

{d)  A  holy  mystery  in  the  Church,       .  ,  .89 


ANAL  YSIS.  XIU 


-HOLY  ORDER. 


{a)  Question    of    the    ministry    a   burning    one 

to-day,    ........     90 

{b)  Not  all  ministries  valid,  .         .         .         -91 

{c)   The  grace  of  Ordination  ;  true  import  of  the 

Ordinal, 91 

VI.— ABSOLUTION. 

1.  {a)  By  what  names  known,  .  .  .  .92 
{b)  Power  of  the  priest  to  forgive  sins,  .  .  92 
(c)   Confession  implied  in  this,       .         .  .  -93 

2.  Christ  Forgave  Sins  as  the  Son  of  Man  : 

(rt)  Analysis  of  St.  Mark,  ii.  3-12,  .  .  .94 
{b)  Christ's  power  given  by  Him  to  His  ministry,  95 
ic)   Words  of  the  Ordinal, 95 

3.  Testimony  to  the  Teaching  of  the  Church  : 

(a)  Gray's  tract  on  "  Confession,"  .  .  .96 
{b)  Pusey's  translation  of  Gaume,  .  .  -97 
(<f)  Statement  in  ist  Book  of  Edward  VI., 
{d)  Liddon,  ]Mahan,  Ewer,  . 

VII.— UNCTION. 

{a)  Bishop  Harold  Browne  quoted, 
ib)  Bishop  Forbes  of  Brechin, 
{c)   Anglican  offices  for  unction, 
{d)  Concordat  with  Scottish  Church,    . 

VIIL— SUMMARY. 

I.  The    Position    of    our    Church    Wise    and 

Reverent, 106 

{a)  Number  of  sacraments  not  to  be  precisely 

stated  or  limited, 106 

ib)  Because  the  whole  Gospel   system  is  sacra- 
mental,   107 


99. 

100 

lOI, 

102 

103 

104 

105 

105 

XIV  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

PAGE 

2.  Great  Importance  of  the  Subject,        .        .  io8 
{a)  The  battle  of  the  day  is  between  Christianity 

and  Paganism, io8 

{b)  Sacraments    and    the    supernatural    go    to- 
gether,   .         .         .         .    *    .         .         .     109-112 
{c)   Application  of  the  principle  to  every  stage  of 
human   life   and  all  the    experiences    of  the 
soul,        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .112 


LECTURE   IV. 

Holy  Baptism. 

I.— THE   OXFORD    MOVEMENT. 

{a)  Its  original  aim, 115 

ib)  Stress  laid  on    the    doctrine  of  sacramental 

grace, 115 

ic)   Dr.  Pusey's  tract  on  "  Baptism,"    .         .         .116 

II.— HOLY   BAPTISM    NECESSARY    TO   SALVATION. 

ia)  Scripture  statements, 116 

{b)  Opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Church,  .  117 
ic)  Permanence  of  the  Pelagian  heresy,  .  .118 
{d)  Christo-Pantheism  a  popular  fad  of  the  day,   118 

HI.— THREE   GIFTS   IN    BAPTISM. 

I.  Forgiveness  of  Sins 119 

{a)  Doctrine  of  the  Church  on  original  sin,  ,   120 

{b)  Most  easily  dealt  with  in  infancy,  because  no 

bar  can  then  be  opposed,       ....   121 
{c)  Church  teaching   refutes  the  error  of  those 

who  make  little  or  no  account  of  sin,    .         .   122 


ANALYSIS.  XV 

2.  Regeneration  :  ^^^^ 

{a)    Gorham  case  ;  ultimately  a  blessing,    .         .  123 

{b)  Pusey's  definition  of  regeneration,  .  .  124 
{c)    Man   passive   in  the  new  birth  ;  it  is  God's 

work  exclusively,           .....  125 
{d)  Not  to  be  confused  with  change  of  heart,    .  126 
{e)    Church    teachings  in  accord  with  and  sup- 
ported by  science,         .....  128 
(/)   Direct  connection  with  the  doctrine  of  the 

Incarnation, 129 

3.  Illumination  : 

{a)    Statements  in  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  .    131 

ib)  Light,  and  the  organ  of  sight,  not  the  same,  132 
if)    Material,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  light  and 

sight, ^Zl) 

{d)  Parallels  and  analogies,  .         .         .         .134 

{e)  Light  given  to  the  spirit  in  baptism,  .  .  134 
(/)  Whereby  to  see  divine  truth,  .  .  .134 
i^g)  And    constituting  a  new    spiritual  sense  in 

us. 135 

IV.— THE    HALLOWING   OF   THE   FONT,    .  .         .136 

{a)  Sanctifying  water  to   the   washing  away  of 

sin, 136 

ib)  Scriptural  and  historic  review,  .  .  .137 
{c)  Constant  occurrence  of  the  phrase  in  the  old 

liturgies  and  offices  of  the  Church,        .         .138 
{d)  Tradition  inviolably  preserved  among  us,      .    139 

v.— BEARING   OF    THE   DOCTRINE   OF    HOLY   BAP- 
TISM ON  THREE  NOTABLE  ERRORS,  140,  141 
{a)  Remission   of  sin,   a  witness    against    Pela- 

gianism, Ho.  Hi 


XVI  LENTEN  LECTURES. 


ib)  Regeneration,  a  witness  against  neo-Panthe- 

ism, 140,  141 

ic)  Illumination,  a  witness  against   rationalistic 

philosophy, 140,  141 

id)  Need  of  reassertion   of  Church  doctrine  at 

the  present  time 142 


LECTURE   V. 

Holy  Communion. 

I.— DEEP   IMPORTANCE   OF    THE   SUBJECT,      .         .   147 

{a)  Exact  illustration  of  the  sacramental  exten- 
sion of  the  Incarnation,  ....   147 

ip)  Unreality  of  modern  religion  a  Nemesis  on 

the  denial  of  the  Real  Presence,    .         .         .   148 

II.— THE   SACRAMENT    OF   THE   ALTAR    SUMS   UP 

AND    REFLECTS   ALL   TRUTH,    .  .         .149 

{a)  Twofold  aspect  :  sacrifice  and  sacrament,    .   149 

{b)   Christ  present, 149 

{c)    The  presence  effected,  not  by  our  act,  but  by 

the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,       .         .         .150 

III.— ANALYSIS   OF   STATEMENTS    IN    THE   CATE- 
CHISM,       151 

1.  Radical  Difference  in  the  Description  of 

THE  TWO  Sacraments,  .        .        .        .151 

2.  Three  Terms  to  be  Considered,    .        .        .152 

{a)  Signu77i. 
\b)  Res. 
if)    Virtus. 

3.  These  to  be  kept  Distinct,      .        .        ,        .153 


ANALYSIS.  XVI 1 

PAGE 

IV.— PARALLEL  BETWEEN  DOCTRINE  OF  THE 
INCARNATION  AND  THAT  OF  THE 
SACRAMENT  OF  THE  ALTAR,     .    .154 

1.  Hooker's  Analysis  of  the  Four  Heresies  and  the 

Four  General  Councils,     .         .         .         .         -154 

2.  Paraphrase  of  the  said  Analysis,  Showing  Four 

great  Errors  as  to  the  Holy  Sacrament,     155,  156 

v.— THE    REAL    PRESENCE. 

1.  Statement  of  the  Doctrine,  .        .        .        .157 

2.  Impugned  by  : 

{a)    Transubstantiation, 157 

{b)    Consubstantiation,  .....  157 

(r)    Virtualism, 157 

id)  The  sign  theory, 157 

VI.— TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 

{a)    Article  XXVIH., 158 

{b)   Truth  of  the  ^/V^z^;/;^  denied,  .         .         .158 

{c)  Double  appeal  to  antiquity,  .  .  .  .159 
{d)  Permanence  of  the  substance,  .  .  .  160 
(<?)    And  yet  changed  for  their  supernatural  use,   160 

VIL— ZWINGLIANISM. 

{a)  Theory  of  memorial  feast,  ....  l6l 
{b)    Repudiated    by  our  Church,  and  not  to  be 

reconciled  with  her  offices  and  formularies,  162 
id)  Disapproved  by  Protestant  divines,  .  .  163 
{d)  True  place  of  Zwinglius,         ....   163 

VIII.— VIRTUALISM. 

{a)    Higher  teaching  than  that  of  Zwinglius,       .  164 


XVlll  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

PAGE 

ip)  Yet  defective  as  denying  the  truth  and  pres- 
ence of  the  Res,     ......   165 

{c)    Therefore  correctly  described  as  the  theory 

of  the  Real  Absence, 166 

{d)  Strength  and  weakness  of  virtualism,    .         .   167 

IX.— CONSUBSTANTIATION. 

{a)  Doubtful  whether  ever  held,  ....  167 
{b)  Blasphemous  and  absurd,  ....  167 
{c)   And  therefore   not  to  be  imputed  to  any  one 

until  he  says  that  it  is  his  belief,   .         .         .   167 

X.— SUMMARY, 168,  169 

XL— BRIEF    REFERENCE   TO   THE    HOLY   EUCHA- 

RIST   CONSIDERED   AS   A   SACRIFICE,        .   170 

Reason  for  not  enlarging  on  this  point,        .         .171 

XII.— THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  REAL,  OBJECTIVE 
PRESENCE  AS  HELD  IN  THE  CHURCH 
AN   EIRENICON, I73-I77 


LECTURE   VI. 

The  Outward  Glory  and  the  Inward  Grace. 

I._TWOFOLD    MANIFESTATION    OF    THE  SACRA- 
MENTAL  SYSTEM. 

{a)  Externally  in  Christian  Worship,  .  .         .181 

{b)  Internally  in  believing  men,    .         .  .         .181 


ANAL  YSIS.  XIX 

PAGE 

II.— RITUAL   OF   THE   CATHOLIC    CHURCH,     .  .   182 

{a)  Comprehensiveness  of  the  term,     .         .         .   182 

{b)   Permanence, 182 

ic)   Efforts  at  recovery  where  lost,        .         .         .183 

III.— SACRAMENTALITY, 184 

(<^)  John  Mason  Neale's  use  of  the  term,      .         .184 
ib)   Necessity   of  outward   signs  to  express   the 

idea  of  worship, 185 

IV.— RITUAL   SANCTIONED    BY   GOD. 

{a)  Temple  worship, 186 

{b)  Expanding  into  that  of  the  Church,        .         .   186 
{c)  Iconoclasm  attests  the  importance  of  the  sub- 
ject,          187 

v.— USE   OF   SYMBOLISM, 188 

ia)  Absolutely  necessary,      .         .         .         .         .188 
[p)  Coeval  with  the  human  race,  .         .         .189 

{c)  Value  of  the  Symbol,        ....    190,  191 

VI.— CORRESPONDENCE  BETWEEN  THE  WORSHIP 
OF  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WORSHIP 
OFFERED   BY   NATURE. 

ia)  Divine  worship  should  be  beautiful  and  rich 
in  form,  ..... 

{b)  Nature's  contributions  to  it,    . 

{c)  Logical     result    of    denial     of    these 
ciples,     ...... 

{d)  Sceptical  objection  answered, 

VII.— PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIAN    WORSHIP, 

ia)  Symbolical,     ..... 

ib)  Pictorial, 

{c)  Culmination  in  cathedral  idea, 


•  193. 

194 

prm- 

•  195. 

196 

197 

198 

198 

. 

199 

. 

199 

XX  LENTEhr  LECTURES. 


PAGE 

VIIL— DESCRIPTION    OF    CATHEDRAL    WORSHIP, 

200,  201 
{a)  Comment  on  Bryant's  "  Thanatopsis,"  .  202 

{b)  Descent  from  Catholic  ideas,  slow  but  sure, 

to  clulness  and  silence, 203 

{c)  Worship  of  Positivism  as  described  by  INIal- 

loch, 204,  205 

IX.— REVIVAL     OF     CATHOLIC     LITURGICAL     USE. 

(rt)  John  Mason  Neale's  prediction  fulfilled,         .  206 
{b)  Danger  attending  the  movement,  .         .         .  207 
{c)  Ritual  witliout  doctrinal  signification  worth- 
less and  pernicious,        .....  208 

X.— SACRAMENTAL      SYSTEM       MANIFESTED      IN 

THE   LIFE   OF   THE   SOUL,  .         .         .208 

ia)  Christ  the  original  and  perfect  type,        .  .  209 

{b)  Imitation  of  Him  impresses  a  distinct  charac- 
ter on  soul  and  body  of  man,         .         .         .210 

XI.— CONCLUSION, 211-214 


I. 

BASIS   OF   THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM. 


LECTURE  I. 

THE   BASIS   OF  THE   SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM. 

On  a  Saturday  afternoon,  in  the  midsummer 
of  last  year,  I  found  myself  by  chance  on  the 
southern  shore  of  Otsego  Lake,  looking  north- 
ward on  a  scene  which  for  quiet  and  soothing 
beauty  can  hardly  be  surpassed.  Before  me  lay 
the  mirror  of  the  Glimmerglass  ;  warm  lights 
threw  a  flush  upon  the  skies  ;  the  day  was  going 
away;  the  omens  of  the  evening  were  already  in 
the  clouds ;  a  breeze,  scarcely  strong  enough  to 
ruffle  the  water,  came  from  the  western  hills;  the 
woods  were  reflected  in  their  native  colors  along 
the  silent  shore.  But  below  was  more  than  what 
met  the  eye.  Through  and  under  this  exterior 
beauty,  voices  could  be  heard,  speaking  of  the 
mystery  of  the  natural  world.  It  has  been  said 
of  the  study  of  nature,  "that  it  is  hardly  profane 
to  characterize  it   as  a  means  of  grace  to  man."  * 

*  See  an  article  in  Garden  and  Forest^  August  12,  1891. 


4  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

The  words  are  words  of  truth  ;  in  nature  is  a 
tonic  for  mind  and  heart.  Here  are  depths 
which  no  man  has  yet  sounded,  not  philosopher 
nor  poet;  here  is  a  mystery  which  thus  far  defies 
our  search — w4ience,  and  how,  came  this  won- 
drous, beautiful  world  ;  when  it  was  made ;  and 
why  it  was  made  '^  subject  to  vanity;"  how  long, 
before  man  appeared  on  the  earth,  his  destiny 
and  doom  were  foreshadowed  there;  how  he,  in 
his  fortunes,  is  linked  to  what  he  calls  "  nature  "  ; 
by  what  bond  and  to  what  extent  it  is  so  related 
to  him  as  to  sympathize  with  him  in  his  sorrows, 
and  partake  of  his  hope — what  poet,  what  philos- 
opher, what  theologian  has  told  us  the  wdiole  truth 
on  these  points?  Of  them  might  one  readily  be 
led  to  muse,  while  looking  upon  the  lake,  con- 
fronted by  forests  and  hills,  and  the  perspective 
of  point,  bluff,  and  mountain  ;  for  at  such  times 
and  in  such  places  men  become  aware  of  some 
unspeakable  strangeness  in  their  life,  and,  keeping 
silence  before  mysterious  and  dimly  indicated 
presences,  they  know  that  it  must  be  possible 
to  draw  its  hidden  meaning  from  God's  world, 
from  hill  and  plain,  from  deep,  still  waters  and 
shadowy  woods,  from  the  currents  of  the  evening 
breeze  and  the  outstretched  shadows  of  ebbing  day. 


BASIS   OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.  5 

Hard  by  that  lake  stands  an  old  church,  shaded 
by  tall  pines  and  other  trees,  and  keeping  watch 
and  ward  over  the  surrounding  resting-places  of 
the  dead  in  Christ.  On  the  following  morning  I 
found  myself  at  the  early  celebration  in  that  ven- 
erable fane.  Here  another  mystery  confronted  us, 
like  the  other,  too  deep  to  search  out;  the  mystery 
of  the  Coming  of  our  Lord,  in  Holy  Communion. 
The  church  also,  like  the  lake,  was  held  in  the 
stillness  of  a  holy  peace.  The  voice  of  the  priest, 
as  he  recited  the  office,  was  the  only  sound  that 
broke  upon  the  ear;  the  words  of  Christ  were 
repeated  ;  and  then,  to  the  eye  of  faith,  '*  came 
Jesus  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and  said.  Peace  be 
unto  you."  Both  the  mysteries  of  which  I  have 
been  speaking  were  of  God  ;  one  in  the  order  of 
nature,  the  other  in  the  order  of  grace.  And  at 
that  time  it  occurred  to  me — remembering  an 
accepted  invitation  to  speak  to  you  on  some  sacred 
theme — that  the  subject  had  been  assigned,  on  the 
shore  of  the  lake  in  the  evening,  and  in  the  church 
in  that  consecrated  morning  hour.  Is  there  not  a 
parallelism,  a  correlation,  between  these  two  mys- 
teries? May  there  not  be,  to  other,  larger  eyes 
than  ours,  points  at  which  they  touch  or  interpene- 
trate ?     May   not   the   mystery  in   nature  pass   on- 


6  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

ward  and  upward  to  the  mystery  in  grace?  And 
may  not  the  mystery  in  grace  be  more  deeply  felt 
when  interpreted  by  the  mystery  in  nature?  Can 
this  be,  that  the  natural  world  holds  some  relation 
to  man  in  his  life,  which  is  realized  to  him  in  that 
profoundest  of  all  wonders,  the  Sacram.ent  of  the 
Altar?  May  not  the  same  Hand  which  beckons 
to  us  through  the  veil  of  nature  be  laid  upon  us 
to  bless  as  we  kneel  in  adoration  before  ''  those 
holy  mysteries  "  ?  The  inspired  writers  ascribe 
personality  to  tree  and  mountain  and  hill,  calling 
on  them  to  clap  their  hands,  to  sing,  to  show  forth 
God's  praise.  Our  own  poets  represent  the  inani- 
mate world  as  if  it  had  voices  and  a  mission  to 
men.  Is  this  mere  metaphor?  Is  there  no  truth 
in  it?  The  light  natural  and  the  light  super- 
natural ;  the  beauty  of  the  material  world  and 
the  beauty  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  :  come  they 
not  both  of  God  ?  And  are  there  not  relationships 
between  them  more  intimate  than  we  suppose,  too 
subtile  for  us  to  comprehend  ?  On  that  line  would 
I  lead  you  this  evening,  as  we  think  of  the  treas- 
ures of  our  inheritance  in  the  holy  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

It  is  a  high  honor  and   privilege   to  lecture  be- 
fore this  Seminary.    The  series   delivered   on   this 


BASIS  OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.  7 

"  Bishop  Paddock  Foundation  "  a  year  ago  had  for 
its  subject  the  Incarnation.  I  propose,  as  my  theme 
this  year,  the  Sacramental  System.  There  is,  I 
trust,  a  fitness  in  this  order.  **  The  fathers,"  says 
Bishop  Jeremy  Taylor,  "by  an  elegant  expression, 
call  the  blessed  sacrament  the  extension  of  the  in- 
carnation." The  idea  was,  no  doubt,  derived  by 
them  from  what  St.  Paul  said  about  those  "  joints 
and  bands  "  by  which  grace  is  ministered  to  us,  and 
through  which  the  whole  body  "  increaseth  with 
the  increase  of  God."  (Col.  iii.  19  ;  Eph.  iv.  16.) 
And  so,  in  accord  with  "  Holy  Scripture,  and  An- 
cient Authors,"  our  own  Richard  Hooker,  in  the 
fifth  book  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  lays  the 
foundation  of  his  teaching  on  the  holy  sacraments 
in  that  full,  minute,  and  incomparable  statement 
of  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  with 
which  you  are  no  doubt  familiar.  To  follow  up 
the  lectures  of  last  year  on  the  Incarnation  by 
a  course  on  the  Sacraments  seems,  therefore,  in 
order  ;  and  to  this,  in  reliance  on  divine  aid,  I  now 
proceed. 

Of  sacramental  doctrine  this  may  be  truly  said, 
that  it  is  coextensive  with  historic  Christianity. 
Of  this  there  is  no  reasonable  doubt,  as  regards  the 
very  ancient  days,  of  which  St.  Chrysostom's  trea- 


8  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

tise  on  the  priesthood  and  St.  Cyril's  catechetical 
lectures  may  be  taken  as  characteristic  documents. 
Nor  was  it  otherwise  with  the  more  conservative 
of  the  reformed  bodies  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
Martin  Luther's  catechism,  the  Augsburg,  and 
later  the  Westminster,  confessions  are  strongly  sac- 
ramental in  their  tone,  putting  to  shame  the  de- 
generate followers  of  the  men  who  compiled  them. 
What  is  the  basis  of  a  system  obviously  coexten- 
sive with  Christianity?  There  are  those  who,  while 
holding  sacramental  doctrine,  take  their  starting- 
point  in  a  correspondence  with  the  twofold  consti- 
tution of  man's  nature,  a  congruity  with  the  prac- 
tical experience  of  our  everyday  life.  But  surely 
there  is  a  point  of  departure  much  more  remote 
than  these  ;  we  may  go  beyond  the  lower  range  of 
simile,  fitness,  and  happy  adaptation  to  circum- 
stances, and  trace  its  origin  far  back  of  such  obvious 
considerations.  Nay,  it  were  well  to  do  so,  in  the 
interests  of  humanity,  for  who  can  tell  how  many 
objectors  would  be  silenced,  how  many  unhappy 
doubters  convinced,  could  they  but  see  the  subject 
in  its  fulness  and  depth? 

The  Sacramental  System  claims,  even  on  philo- 
sophical grounds,  the  attention  of  the  closest  stu- 
dents of   nature  and   the  best  thinkers  of  the  age; 


/■ 


BASIS   OF    THE    SACRAMEiVTAL    SYSTEM.         9 

and  where  it  is  lightly  esteemed,  the  reason  may  be 
that  it  has  been  presented  in  a  dry  and  lifeless 
way,  and  commended  to  regard  on  no  higher 
grounds  than  those  of  expediency  or  convenience  ; 
so  that  it  offers  nothing  to  touch  the  soul,  excite 
the  imagination,  or  challenge  faith.  The  Sacra- 
mental System  has  been  given  away  in  exchange 
or  the  lucubrations  of  rationalism,  or  degraded  to 
the  level  of  empty  ceremonies,  bald  signs,  and 
forms  without  life.  To  quote  from  Robert  Isaac 
Wilberforce,  referring  to  the  low  and  partial  esti- 
mate of  sacraments : 

"It  rests  their  use  on  our  act  only,  not  on  that  of 
God  ;  it  is  merely  subjective,  human,  tentative,  and  though 
useful  as  a  direction  to  ourselves,  falls  far  short  of  the  sub- 
lime views  which  Scripture  opens  respecting-  these  'holy 
mysteries.'  It  is  a  conception  such  as  a  Socinian  might 
entertain,  but  with  which  the  Christian  mind  could  never  be 
satisfied."  * 

Far  different  is  the  Sacramental  System  when 
presented  to  devout  consideration  as  included  in 
the  eternal  purpose  of  God  ;  effectuated  through 
an  alliance  between  God  and   His  material,  moral, 

*  "  Doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,"  ch,  xiii.  p.  405. 


lO  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

and  spiritual  creation  ;  having  relations  of  some 
kind  to  all  the  kingdoms  of  nature,  and  probably 
extending  in  its  influence  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
terrestrial  sphere. 

The  system  which  we  are  about  to  consider  has 
two  sides,  a  practical  and  almost  commonplace 
side,  and  an  ideal  and  mystical  side.  In  the  latter 
relation  it  is  proposed  to  treat  of  it  in  this  lecture. 
I  do  not  intend  to  make  an  argument  in  logical 
form,  but  simply  to  present  a  series  of  considera- 
tions which  seem  to  bear  with  cogency  upon  the 
subject.  That  nature  is  neither  self-existing  nor 
independent,  but  the  work  of  God,  and  constantly 
ruled  by  God  ;  that  man  is  a  summary  of  nature  ; 
that  there  is  between  the  natural  world  and  our- 
selves an  intimate  connection ;  that  the  disorders 
observable  in  the  natural  world  have  something  to 
do  with  the  trouble  in  us  men,  so  that  relief  to  us 
carries  with  it  benefit  of  some  sort  to  the  world 
outside  of  us  ;  that  through  the  Incarnation  God 
has  Himself,  in  person,  taken  a  unique  place  in 
the  natural  world,  as  man  :  these  are  the  points 
which  shall  first  be  presented  to  your  thoughts. 
And  next  it  will  be  suggested,  as  a  just  inference, 
that  in  the  work  of  repairing  and  reconstructing 
humanity,  by  the  extension  of   the  Incarnation   to 


BASIS   OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM.        II 

individual  souls,  the  natural  world  may  be  drawn 
upon  for  help,  and  its  elements  put  to  use  as 
instrumental  means  whereby  that  race  shall  be 
aided,  in  whose  recovery  nature  herself  has  an  in- 
terest and  a  direct  concern.  Here  may  be  found  a 
basis  for  the  Sacramental  System  deeper  than  that 
of  congruity,  adaptation,  or  convenience.  The  em- 
ployment of  such  a  system  is  not  to  be  regarded 
merely  as  a  happy  thought,  a  lucky  hit,  an  appro- 
priate idea,  but  it  comes  in  because  things  are  as 
they  are,  because  nature  is  summed  up  in  man  ; 
because  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love  God  ;  because  "  the  creature  "  itself  is 
bound  up  in  our  fortunes,  and  may  very  fitly  be 
employed  in  the  process  of  our  extrication  from 
present  evils.  Such  thoughts,  if  they  prove  to  be 
true  and  in  harmony  with  the  Catholic  faith,  must 
place  the  subject  beyond  the  reach  of  frivolous 
objection  and  lift  it  to  the  height  which  it  seems, 
for  some  sufficient  reason,  to  have  held  through  all 
past  ages  of  the  Church. 

Let  us  enter,  with  reverence  and  circumspec- 
tion, a  path  rendered  more  attractive  by  the  mys- 
teries with  which  it  is  encompassed  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left.  And,  first,  to  speak  of 
nature. 


12  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

"  To  him  who,  in  the  love  of  nature,  holds 
Communion  with  her  visible  forms,  she  speaks 
A  various  language." 

So  sings  a  poet  of  our  own  land.  But  what, 
after  all  our  study,  do  we  know  of  nature?  What 
is  meant  by  the  word  ?  And  what  progress  has 
been  made  in  interpreting  her  secrets?  There  are 
two  great  heresies  relating  to  the  natural  world  ; 
one  cuts  it  off  from  Almighty  God,  the  other  con- 
founds it  substantially  with  Him.  To  some  nature 
is  a  vast,  godless  phenomenon,  the  outcome  of  a 
blind  movement,  directed  by  no  intelligent  ruler 
or  governor.  Such  persons  make  it  a  stupendous 
fetich  ;  they  ascribe  to  it  personality,  they  talk 
of  nature's  laws  and  nature's  designs  and  nature's 
acts  as  if  nature  were  as  God  to  us.  In  their 
anxious  interest  men  have  run  into  innumerable 
conjectures.  The  Manichean  says  that  matter  is 
essentially  evil  ;  the  gnostic  conceives  of  the  natu- 
ral world  as  the  work  of  a  malevolent  demiurge, 
the  rival  and  ancient  foe  of  God.  To  some,  as  they 
speculate  on  the  universe,  its  existence  appears  a 
necessity  ;  God  is  constrained  to  be  always  a  crea- 
tor;  He  can  never  have  been  without  a  manifesta- 
tion exterior  to  Himself.  To  the  pantheist,  nature 
and  God  are  the  same — one  universal  and  all-per- 


BASIS   OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        1 3 

vading  substance;  nature  is  God  taking  form  and 
shape;  God  evolving  and  developing;  God  sleeping 
in  the  rock,  moving  in  the  lower  creation,  coming 
to  thought  and  self-knowledge  in  man.  The  tran- 
scendentalist  runs  into  unintelligible  talk,  telling  us 
that  *'  Nature  is  the  incarnation  of  a  thought,  and 
turns  to  a  thought  again,  as  ice  becomes  water  and 
gas  ;  that  the  world  is  mind  precipitated,  and  that 
the  volatile  essence  is  forever  escaping  again  into 
the  state  of  free  thought."'^  Such  are  instances 
of  the  efforts  of  man  to  get  at  the  secret  of  "  the 
rounded  world,  nine  times  folded  in  mystery."  But 
a  Catholic  Christian  is  protected  by  his  faith  from 
such  erroneous  and  wild  opinions ;  he  does  not 
know  all  ;  he  does  not  pretend  to  know  much  ;  but 
he  knows  something,  and  what  he  knows  is  worth 
knowing.  To  him  nature  is  not  a  self-existing  phe- 
nomenon, nor  the  result  of  chance,  nor  yet 

"  A  hollow  form  with  empty  hands." 

In  the  creed  of  the  Catholic  Church  he  has  light 
on  this  subject  ;  that  light  comes  in  the  sublime 
declaration  of  the  existence  of  "  One  God  the 
Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and 
of  all  things  visible  and  invisible  ;  "  it  comes  in  the 

*  See  Emerson's  essay  on  "  Nature." 


14  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

further  statement  that  God,  having  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  "  saw  everything  that  He 
had  made,  and  behold,  it  was  very  good."  ^  Here, 
at  all  events,  are  starting-points  ;  lines  on  which  to 
move  with  some  confidence  in  our  study  of  the 
mystery  ;  first  principles  to  save  us  from  the  blank 
hollowness  of  intuitive  religionism  and  the  unintel- 
ligible utterances  of  the  ideal  philosopher.  Even 
the  materialist  renders  us  a  not  unimportant  ser- 
vice at  this  point  of  our  studies.  Of  dogmatic  ma- 
terialism it  has  been  well  said,  that 

"It  is  the  twin  brother  of  atheism.  It  may  well  be  called 
the  gospel  of  the  flesh  ;  it  is  the  absolute  deification  of  matter 
and  of  the  creature.  The  materialists  are  the  most  danger- 
ous enemies  of  progress  that  the  world  has  ever  seen."t 

The  charge  is  true  of  materialism,  as  a  philo- 
sophic system  pretending  to  explain  all,  and  to 
account  for  man  in  his  entire  state.  But  material- 
ism has  its  uses  and  serves  a  good  purpose  to  the 
Catholic  faith.     As  Dr.  Liddon  remarks  : 

"  Materialism  has  done  valuable  service  in  correcting  the 
exaggeration  of  a  one-sided  spiritualism.  It  is  common  but 
erroneous  to  speak  of  man's   body  as   being  related   to    his 

*  Gen.  i.  31. 

f  Christlieb,  "Modern  Doubt  and  Christian  Belief," Lecture  III.  ii. 


BASIS   OF    THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        15 

spirit  only  as  is  tiie  casket  to  the  jewel  which  it  contains. 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  personal  spirit  of  man  strikes  its 
roots  far  and  deep  into  the  encompassing  frame  of  sense,  with 
which,  from  the  first  moment  of  its  existence,  it  has  been  so 
intimately  associated.  The  spirit  can  indeed  exist  independ- 
ently of  the  body,  but  this  independent  existence  is  not  its 
emancipation  from  a  prison-house  of  matter  and  sense,  it  is  a 
temporary  and  abnormal  div^orce  from  the  companion  whose 
presence  is  needed  to  complete  its  life." 

The  mystery  of  creation  is  not  to  be  solved  by 
the  materialist,  the  pantheist,  the  transcendentalist, 
or  the  ideal  philosopher.  In  their  methods  they 
confuse  matter  and  mind  ;  they  sacrifice  the  flesh 
to  the  spirit  or  the  spirit  to  the  flesh  ;  they  con- 
found the  Creator  and  the  creature  ;  they  let  go  the 
real  to  chase  a  phantom  ;  they  deny  the  evidence 
of  the  senses  or  the  facts  of  human  experience. 
There  is  no  escape  from  their  errors  save  in  the 
acceptance  of  these  cardinal  principles  of  Catholic 
doctrine  : 

{a)  That  God  alone  is  uncreate  and  eternal. 

(b)  That  He  made  all  things  by  the  word  of  His 
power,  not  of  His  own  substance,  but  of  elements 
created  by  Him  for  their  purpose. 

{c)  That  He  made  all  things  good. 

{d)  That  He  rules  and  governs  all. 

These  statements  constitute  the  formal  contradic- 


1 6  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

tion  of  gnostic,  Manichean,  and  pantheistic  errors, 
and  of  materialistic  and  idealistic  speculations. 
They  begin  by  asserting  the  essential  distinction 
between  God  and  nature,  the  supernatural  order 
and  the  visible  universe,  the  material  and  intelligent 
creations.  They  affirm  that  matter,  the  physical 
basis  of  all  visible  things,  is  God's  handiwork  ;  that 
it  is  essentially  good  and  not  evil  ;  that  the  world 
came  into  being  through  Him  ;  that  it  was  the 
product  of  His  wisdom  and  love  ;  that  it  deserves 
our  reverent  study  as  a  manifestation  of  the  divine 
Creator  ;  and  that  by  study  of  the  wonders  of  the 
universe  we  can  come  to  the  knowledge  of  ourselves 
and  God. 

And  here  let  me  remark,  in  passing,  on  the  failure 
of  recent  attempts  to  discredit  the  evidential  argu- 
ment from  nature  in  proof  of  the  truths  of  religion. 
What  St.  Paul  said  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years 
ago  is  as  true  to-day  as  then,  that  the  invisible 
things  of  God  may  be  understood  by  the  things 
that  are  made,  even  His  eternal  power  and  god- 
head." Against  the  denial  of  this  fact,  based  on 
supposed  scientific  discoveries,  a  reaction  has  al- 
ready set   in  ;   it  is  admitted   that  those  discoveries, 

*  Rom.  i:  20. 


BASIS   OF    THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        1 7 

instead  of  weakening,  have  strengthened  that 
branch  of  the  evidences  of  natural  reh"gion.  God 
is  more  clearly  revealed  in  His  intelligence,  power, 
and  love,  the  more  closely  we  study  His  work:-. 
To  quote  Mr.  Gore,  in  his  recently  published 
"  Bampton   Lectures  :  " 

"  If  Charles  Darwin  and  the  scientific  world  whom  he  rep- 
resents have  materially  altered,  yet  they  have  not  fundament- 
ally impaired  the  evidences  in  nature  of  divine  purpose  or 
desig-n,  nor  have  they  touched  the  argument  (to  many  minds 
the  irresistible  argument)  from  the  beauty  of  nature  to  the 
spirituality  of  the  Being  which  it  reveals." — Lecture  II. 

Creation  is  the  work  of  an  almighty  and  benevo- 
lent God  ;  a  mirror  which  reveals  Him.  As  we 
look  into  that  mirror  we  are  held  to  it  by  a  strange 
fascination.  What  is  the  secret  of  that  fascina- 
tion ?  It  arises,  unquestionably,  from  the  percep- 
tion of  a  relationship  between  nature  and  our- 
selves. What  is  the  place  of  man  in  the  universe 
of  wonders?  Let  us  proceed  to  consider  this 
point. 

It  is  a  striking  remark  of  Emerson,  that  "  the 
roots  of  all  things  are  in  Man."  To  Catholics  this 
is  a  familiar  thought.  It  is  said  that  man,  in  his 
progress  from  obscure  embryonic  rudiments  to  the 
state  in  which  he  emerges  from    the  womb  into  the 


1 8  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

outer  world,  passes  through  many  a  stage  of  lower 
life.  And  nowhere  is  Catholic  theology  more  bold 
or  more  masterful  than  in  its  account  of  man  in 
this  relation  to  the  universe.  Let  us  hear  the 
words  of  a  great  teacher  on  this  point : 

"  God,  in  creating  the  lieavens  and  the  earth,  created  two 
worlds  in  one  :  a  world  invisible  and  celestial,  the  city  of 
spirits  ;  and  a  world  terrestrial  and  visible,  the  country  of 
material  bodies.  Until  man  appeared  on  the  earth,  there 
were  sensitive  life  and  vegetative  life,  but  there  was  no  intel- 
ligent life.  ...  In  creating  man,  God  joined  together 
spirit  and  body  in  the  unity  of  a  single  being,  in  such  a  way 
that  the  being  of  the  soul  is  also  the  being  of  the  body  ;  and 
in  consequence,  in  this  marvellous  creature,  the  spirit  has 
a  corporal  being  and  a  corporal  life,  while  the  body  receives 
a  spiritual  being  and  a  spiritual  life  ;  the  intelligence  has,  as 
it  w-ere,  a  material  personality,  while  the  material  is  elevated 
to  a  species  of  intelligent  personality  ;  so  that  in  man  we  find 
this  material  body  of  ours  speaking  and  acting  as  the  spirit 
speaks  and  acts,  to  which  the  lower  is  united  substantially 
without  confusion.  Matter  and  body  are  associated  with 
spirit  in  man,  for  the  worship  of  God  and  for  the  service  of 
religion."  * 

This  is  man  ;  the  minor  vmndiis^  as  he  has  been 
called  ;  matter  and  spirit  in  one  person  ;  represent- 


'"^  **  La  Raison  Philosophiqiie  et  la  Raison  Catholique  :  Confer- 
ences by  Father  Ventura  de  Kaulica."     Paris,  Gaume  Freres,  1S54. 


BASIS   OF   THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        1 9 

ing  and  including  two  worlds  ;  having  the  entire 
created  universe  summed  up  in  him.  According 
to  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  : 

"  Man  is  not  only  in  touch  with  the  intellectual  order  by 
way  of  his  intelligence,  and  with  the  material  order  through 
his  senses  ;  but  also,  being  both  spirit  and  body,  he  is  in  him- 
self a  summary  of  the  conditions  of  all  bodies  and  of  all 
spirits.  Like  God,  he  is  independent  of  every  other  created 
being  ;  he  is  intelligent,  like  the  angels,  and  at  the  same  time 
he  has  the  sensitive  life  of  the  brute,  the  vegetative  life  of  the 
plant,  the  augmentative  life  of  the  mineral,  the  inert  existence 
of  inorganic  beings  ;  and  thus,  uniting  in  himself  the  elements 
of  all  beings,  the  forces  of  all  lives  in  creation,  he  produces 
all  the  effects  thereof  and  embraces  all  its  harmonies  ;  he  is, 
in  short,  the  world  in  small,  the  summary,  the  abridgment  of 
the  world,  '  viundi  siimma  et  compendium'  " 

Such  is  man,  and  this  is  his  place  in  the  uni- 
verse. And  here  we  come  to  that  stupendous  fact 
in  the  history  of  creation  which  consigns  to  rela- 
tive insignificance  the  questions  so  much  discussed, 
about  the  mode  of  creation,  the  age  of  the  world, 
protoplasm,  evolution,  and  the  like.  The  fact  re- 
ferred to  is  that  of  the  Incarnation.  The  Creator 
has  come  into  His  own  universe,  and  has  taken 
it  bodily  {(TooMar I Jicdg)^  into   Himself,  in  assuming 

*  Col.  ii.  9. 


20  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

our  humanity.  We  assert,  as  Catholics,  while 
repudiating  pantheistic  ideas  of  consubstantiation, 
commingling,  or  identification,  that  God,  the  per- 
sonal Creator,  by  whom  all  things  were  made  and 
do  consist,  was  pleased  to  unite  and  join  together 
in  His  person  two  natures,  absolutely  diverse  and 
distinct  ;  and  that,  of  these  two,  one  was  substan- 
tially a  summary  of  the  created  universe.  "  Homo 
f actus  csty  You  know  that  it  was  human  nature, 
and  not  a  human  person,  through  which  the  Incar- 
nation was  effected.  Jesus  Christ  w^as  not  an  in- 
dividual of  our  race,  one  in  number  of  Adam's 
line,  born  in  the  natural  order,  and,  subsequently 
to  such  birth,  united  to  God,  That  would  not  have 
been  incarnation  at  all  in  the  Catholic  sense  of 
the  word.  But  a  nature,  and  not  a  person,  was 
joined  to  the  Godhead,  a/iyd^)^,  reXeoo^,  adicxi- 
ptTQDi,  affvyx^Tf^^-  And  therefore,  whatever  rela- 
tion man  sustains  towards  the  other  orders  of 
creation  and  the  kingdoms  of  nature,  the  same 
does  Christ,  as  man,  sustain  to  them.  He,  being 
perfect  man,  is  related  to  the  visible  and  mate- 
rial creation  as  truly  as  to  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  world.  He  also  may  be  called  the  micro- 
cosm, the  minor  miindns,  miiiidi  summa  et  compen- 
dium.    And   to  think  of  Christ  as   now  an   abstract 


BASIS   OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM.        21 

and  incorporeal  spiritual  essence  would  be  the  same 
error  as  to  strike  out  the  body  from  the  description 
of  a  man,  and  to  represent  him  as  essentially  like 
to  the  angels. 

In  the  Catholic  doctrine  this  relation  of  the  world 
to  God  and  of  God  to  the  world  is  presented  to 
our  faith.  To  say  that  one  man  of  our  race,  born 
after  the  manner  common  to  us  all,  was  taken  up 
into  unity  with  God,  would  be  to  throw  away  a 
glorious  truth,  and  drop  to  a  lame  and  impotent 
conclusion.  If  Jesus  Christ  had  been  the  son  of 
Joseph  and  Mary,  whatever  might  have  been  done 
for  Him  at  any  period  of  His  life  would  have 
affected  Him  and  Him  only.  There  is  an  element 
of  the  ludicrous  and  fantastical  in  the  idea  of  such 
an  exaltation  and  glorifying  of  one  particular  man 
out  of  all  that  ever  lived,  for  no  assignable  reason 
unless  ''pour  encourager  les  autres  ;  "  nor  could  we, 
on  such  a  poverty-stricken  hypothesis,  come  to  that 
magnificent  conception  of  the  alliance  between  the 
universe  and  its  Creator.  Not  to  one  human  per- 
son, not  to  one  exceptionally  favored  individual 
of  Adam's  line,  not  to  a  man  like  Moses  or  Gau- 
tama or  Socrates,  were  divine  honor  and  the  dig- 
nity of  exaltation  to  equality  with  God  awarded. 
What    God  assumed    was  human  nature,   and    not 


22  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

a  human  person.  He  who  is  ever  with  His 
creation,  entered  into  His  own  world  in  a  new 
way  ;  He  became  man  ;  and  thus  a  new  relation- 
ship was  formed  between  Him  and  that  creation 
which  owed  its  existence  to  Him,  and  which, 
from  the  beginning,  He  had  governed  and  con- 
trolled. 

Let  us  advance  a  step.  Why  did  God  the  Son 
become  incarnate?  And  how  far  do  the  benefits 
of  the  Incarnation  extend  ?  In  answering  the  first 
of  these  questions  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with 
the  trouble  and  sorrow  in  the  world.  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  discuss  the  question  whether  the  Incarna- 
tion would  have  taken  place,  though  man  had 
not  fallen  ;  it  suffices  to  take  facts  as  they  are,  and 
to  note  that  the  work  had  a  remedial  and  restora- 
tive effect.  It  applied,  first,  to  mankind  in  a  state 
of  depression  and  decline  ;  and  secondly,  to  the 
whole  creation,  of  which  we  are  told  that  it  is  dis- 
astrously affected  by  the  condition  of  man,  its  head. 
Let  us  take  up,  next,  the  statements  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture on  this  mysterious  subject. 

The  late  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  in  a  work  entitled 
"  Does  Science  aid  Faith  in  regard  to  Creation?  " - 
says  : 

"   Published  by  Hodder  &  Stoughton,  London,  1883. 


BASIS   OF   THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        23 

"  There  is  one  part  of  the  Christian  faith  on  the  subject  of 
creation  to  which  I  think  sufficient  attention  has  never  been 
given  by  theologians.  And,  instructive  as  it  is  in  itself,  as 
connected  with  our  faith  on  redemption,  it  has  become  in 
modern  times  specially  important  in  its  relation  to  the 
progress  of  science  ;  and  it  is  one  in  which,  perhaps,  more 
than  in  any  other  direction  whatever,  science  has  proved 
itself  the  serviceable  handmaid  of  faith  instead  of  being  its 
rival  and  adversary.  I  refer  to  the  view  of  creation  which 
St.  Paul  sets  forth  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  in  which  chapter  he  brings  to  its  climax  and 
glorious  consummation  the  argument  which  he  had  com- 
menced in  the  fifth  chapter  of  that  epistle,  as  to  the  victory 
through  Christ  of  righteousness  over  sin,  grace  over  wrath 
and  condemnation,  and  life  over  death."     (p.  82.) 

The  subject,  in  the  passage  thus  referred  to,  is 
the  creation,  in  the  Greek  nriGiZ^  in  the  Latin  crea- 
tura,  in  King  James*  version  the  creature,  in  the 
Revised  version  (and  correctly),  the  creation.  As 
Bishop  Cotterill  says:  "  The  word  is  here  used  in  its 
ordinary  sense,  and  includes  all  the  material  crea- 
tion, animate  and  inanimate ;  it  answers  as  nearly 
as  possible  to  '  nature'  in  our  modern  use  of  the 
word."  Now  as  to  the  nriah,  creation,  or  nature, 
St.  Paul  affirms  that  something  in  it  is  wrong.  It 
was  "  made  subject  to  vanity,"  not  of  its  own  will, 
as  in  the  case  of  Adam  when  he  fell ;  but  by  the 
will   of  the   Creator,   who  with   a   purpose,   and  in 


24  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

pursuance  of  a  design,  "  subjected  the  same  to 
vanity."  It  is  the  result  of  that  subjection  that 
"the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain 
together  until  now."  Yet  through  that  state  of 
depression  runs  the  golden  thread  of  hope  :  "  the 
earnest  expectation  of  the  creation  waiteth  for  the 
manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God."  The  universe, 
with  which  we  are  connected  and  to  which,  through 
the  Incarnation,  God  is  allied  and  personally 
united,  is  in  trouble,  in  long  and  serious  trouble,  in 
some  strange  distress  imposed  on  it  in  the  far-off 
past  ;  it  is  expectant  ;  it  has  a  hope  ;  it  is  looking 
forward  to  something;  it  is  waiting  for  ''the  re- 
demption of  our  body."^  Some  strange,  close,  and 
intimate  relationship  exists  between  man  and  what 
he  calls  Nature.  And  this  seems  to  be  the  reason 
why,  as  the  Bishop  of  Durham  has  observed,  the 
old  fathers  of  the  Church  so  often  led  their  pupils 
to  that  lofty  and  divine  and  most  lovely  study  of 
the  visible  world,  and  found  a  basis  for  their  teach- 
ings in  a  rational  feeling  for  the  vast  grandeur  of 
the  external  order,  "  the  sacred  economy  of  the 
universe,"  as  St.  Gregory  calls  it.f     True,  there  is 

*  See  Appended  Notes,  No.  I. 

f  "Essays  in  the  Religious  Thought  of    the  West  :  "  by  I'rooke 
Foss  Westcott,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  p.  215. 


BASIS   OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        25 

disorder  in  that  universe  ;  its  sacred  harmonies  are 
marred  by  discords  ;  there  is  sorrow  on  land  and 
sea,  and  weather  casts  of  trouble  are  in  the  skies 
above  us.  But  relief  is  expected  ;  it  has  been 
promised ;  it  shall  surely  come.  It  is  coming 
through  the  redemption  of  our  body  and  along 
with  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God.  But 
redemption  and  sonship  in  God  are  gifts  to  man 
through  the  Incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Son  ;  so 
that  His  work  acts  beyond  us,  and  finds  a  field  for 
its  beneficent  exercise  below  the  circle  of  His  intel- 
ligent creation.  Christ's  work  cannot  be  limited  to 
the  human  race  ;  it  cannot  be  exhausted  in  rescu- 
ing us  from  sin  and  death  ;  there  are  ranges  beyond 
where  He  worketh,  though  in  ways  not  revealed  to 
us  ;  and  believing  this,  we  are  brought  very  close 
to  the  object  of  our  quest  ;  we  have  reached  the 
point  at  which  we  may  confidently  look  for  the 
basis  of  the  Sacramental  System,  and  find  out  how 
the  material  elements  have  been  made  to  minister 
to  us  in  our  spiritual  and  moral  life. 

For,  if  man  be  the  summary  of  creation;  if  Christ 
be  truly  man,  and,  as  such,  related  to  the  material 
universe,  through  His  humanity,  as  we  are  to  it 
through  ours  ;  if  the  "  creature  "  is  in  trouble,  not 
through  its  own  fault,  but  as  if  it  were  bearing  our 


26  LENTEN  LECTURES, 

trouble,  and  subject  to  vanity  on  our  account  and 
for  our  sakes  ;  if  Christ  is  really  come,  and  is  stand- 
ing in  His  place,  summing  up  in  His  person  all  the 
power  and  forces  of  the  universe,  and  bringing 
them  to  bear  on  us  men  for  our  salvation  ;  if  our 
rescue  and  redemption  are  helping  creation  already, 
and  are  to  help  it  still  more  in  ways  not  yet  appar- 
ent nor  fully  understood  ;  if  creation  be  deeply  in- 
terested and  concerned  in  the  "  redemption  of  that 
body"  by  which  man  touches  the  material  universe 
as  in  his  intelligence  he  touches  the  spiritual  realm; 
if  all  these  things  are  so,  why,  we  may  ask,  should 
it  be  deemed  incredible — why  might  it  not  be  ex- 
pected as  a  matter  of  course — that  in  the  work  of 
man's  redemption  and  deliverance  some  powers, 
some  elements,  of  the  natural  order  should  be  used 
as  instruments  for  that  purpose?  In  connection 
with  that  silent  and  inarticulate  sympathy  with 
man,  why  should  not  nature  proffer  such  help  as 
she  may  be  able  to  give?  Why  should  not  Christ, 
the  great  deliverer,  use  the  elements  of  this  world 
in  bringing  about  spiritual  effects?  He  asserted 
His  lordship  over  earth,  air,  fire,  and  water,  while 
here  ;  He  calmed  the  angry  sea;  He  made  clay  an 
instrument  of  opening  the  eyes  of  the  blind  ;  He 
scattered  to  the  winds  the  powers  of  darkness  ;  in 


BASIS  OF   THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.       2/ 

His  remedial  processes  He  drew  upon  the  phar- 
macy of  nature.  Was  this  only  for  convenience' 
sake,  or  for  the  purposes  of  a  barren  symbolism  ? 
Was  there  a  deeper  meaning  in  it?  Nature,  in  her 
normal  condition,  offers  medicines  for  the  healing 
of  the  body  ;  vegetable  and  mineral  helps,  tonics, 
febrifuges,  anodynes.  Why  should  not  the  Holy 
Ghost,  through  natural  elements,  exalted  to  a 
supernatural  efficacy,  minister  to  the  diseases  of 
the  soul  ?  Why  should  not  earth,  air,  fire,  and 
water  be  made  to  help  us?  The  element  of  water, 
by  which  three-fourths  of  the  globe  is  covered,  of 
which  great  part  of  the  human  body  is  made  up, 
why  should  it  not  be  ''  sanctified  to  the  washing 
away  of  sin  "  ?  The  corn,  which  groweth  up  out  of 
the  earth,  and  is  bruised  and  ground  in  the  mortar, 
and  baked  in  the  fire  ;  the  grape,  which  ripens  in 
the  sunshine ;  why  should  not  these  be  used  for 
spiritual  purposes,  as  instrumental  means  of  sancti- 
fication  and  holy  gifts,  to  purify,  feed,  and  hallow 
human  life?  What  is  there  strained  or  repellent  in 
the  idea  of  such  ministration  of  the  natural  ele- 
ments to  Him  who,  though  the  head  and  crown  of 
nature,  needs  all  the  help  that  can  be  given  from 
heaven  and  earth  ?  The  application  of  material 
agents  to  spiritual  uses  through  a  consecration  such 


28  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

as  the  divine  power  knows  how  to  effect,  is  not 
only  a  simple  idea,  it  is  the  sequel  to  that  act  of 
the  Eternal  Son  of  God  in  assuming  a  mortal  body 
and  a  human  soul.  Sacramental  religion  may 
accordingly  be  considered  as  the  purest  and  sim- 
plest of  all  religions.  It  follows  the  line  on 
which  our  redemption  proceeds ;  on  which  the 
release  of  the  creation  from  vanity  is  now  pro- 
ceeding. 

And  then  com.es  another  question  :  How  far  do 
the  benefits  of  the  Incarnation  extend  ?  Who  can 
say  ?  Who  can  limit  the  work  of  God  the  Son  ? 
Who  can  draw  a  line,  and  tell  us  how  much  it 
may  take  in  before  the  end  ;  how  deeply  it  strikes 
into  the  frame  of  nature  ;  how  comprehensive  it 
may  prove,  when  we  see  the  full  extent  of  the 
mystery,  as  we  shall  by  and  by  ?  Are  there 
inhabitants  in  the  spheres  about  us  ?  Have  they 
intelligence,  and  a  moral  nature?  Is  this  earth  the 
only  orb,  in  the  myriads  and  myriads  of  the  uni- 
verse, where  living,  thinking,  speaking  creatures  are 
to  be  found  ?  Sooner  than  be  content  with  a 
narrow  theory  on  these  points,  let  us  give  the 
thoughts  and  the  imagination  free  play;  let  us 
appropriate  the  language  of  the  old  Breviary 
hymn,    in    which    the    benefits    of    the    atonement 


BASIS  OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        29 

are  boldly  and  thrillingly  extended  to  all  king- 
doms of  the  earth  and  to  other  worlds  than 
this: 

"  Terra,  pontus,  astra,  mundus, 
Quo  lavantur  flumine."* 

Such  thoughts  as  these,  or  such  dreams,  if  you 
like  that  word  better,  are  at  all  events  in  accord 
with  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the  mind  of  the 
Church.  In  proof  of  this  statement,  reference 
may  be  made  to  the  fathers  and  saints,  who 
from  time  to  time  have  felt  and  expressed  in- 
tense sympathy  with  nature,  and  even  professed 
a  sense  of  brotherhood  with  beings  of  the  lower 
orders  of  creation.  If  one  of  the  enlightened, 
highly  cultured  and  eminently  practical  people  of 
our  own  day  were  to  be  asked  which  of  all  the 
legends  of  the  saints  he  thought  the  silliest,  he 
would  probably  mention  that  of  St.  Anthony  of 
Padua,  who  preached  to  the  fishes,  or  that  of  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi,  calling  the  birds  of  the  air  about 
him,  and   bidding  them    and   other  creatures  unite 

*  Happily,    we  have   this   noble  lyric   in  our  new   Hymnal  ;  the 
lines  are  thus  rendered  : 

"  Whence,  to  cleanse  the  whole  creation, 
Streams  of  blood  and  water  flow." 


30  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

with  him  in  praising  their  Lord  and  ours.  But  is 
there  not  a  truth  here  which  w^e  ought  to  discern  ? 
Is  not  this  one  application  of  the  doctrine  of  St. 
Paul  ?  Who  knows  that  birds  and  beasts,  the  fowl 
that  fiy  in  the  firmament,  and  all  that  move  in  the 
waters,  -may  not  in  their  own  way  be  more  relig- 
ious than  man  ?  What  soul  so  dull  and  cold  as  to 
find  no  meaning  in  the  pleasant  sounds  of  morning 
and  noonday,  of  evening  and  night,  while  the  sw^ift 
earth  rolls  on  her  course,  and  suns  and  stars  rise 
and  set,  and  moons  wax  and  wane,  and  many  a 
plaintive  voice  seems  chanting  to  God  ;  the  shrill 
cicada  uttering  its  cry,  and  the  cricket  practising  its 
cheerful  song  ?  Few  pictures  are  more  delightful 
than  that  of  the  holy  man  who  so  dearly  loved  the 
lower  creation,  and  was  gentle  and  tender  to  all 
that  hath  breath  ;  whom  Mrs.  Jameson  has  charm- 
ingly described  as 

"wandering  over  those  beautiful  Umbrian  mountains,  from 
Assisi  to  Gubbio,  singing  with  a  loud  voice  hymns  [alia 
Francese,  as  the  old  legend  expresses  it,  whatever  that 
may  mean),  and  praisinj^  God  for  all  things — for  the  sun 
which  shone  above  ;  for  the  day  and  for  the  night  ;  for  his 
?nother  the  earth,  and  for  his  sister  the  moon  ;  for  the  winds 
which  blew  in  his  face  ;  for  the  pure,  precious  water,  and  for 
the  jocund   fire  ;  for  the   flowers    under  his  feet,  and  for  the 


BASIS  OF   THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        3^ 

stars  above  his  head — saluting  and  blessing  all  creatures, 
whether  animate  or  inanimate,  as  his  brethren  and  sisters 
in   the    Lord.* 

Do  you  ask  an  explanation  of  the  influence 
exerted  over  man  by  the  aspect  and  phenomena 
of  the  natural  world  ?  Find  it  in  the  fact  of 
an  intimate  relationship  between  us  and  it ;  as, 
through  our  material  constitution,  part  and  parcel 
thereof ;  as  having  joint  interests,  and  a  commu- 
nity in  pain  and  hope.  And  in  that  relationship 
find  also  the  justification  of  that  Sacramental  Sys- 
tem, to  which  such  persistent  objections  are  made 
where  the  conditions  of  human  existence  are  im- 
perfectly understood.  No  other  system  addresses 
us  with  such  force ;  none  offers  so  much  as  this. 
On  other  grounds  also  it  makes  appeal  to  the 
enlightened  reason  ;  but  we  shall  not  feel  it  for 
all  that  it  is,  till  we  have  gone  to  the  heart  and 
centre  of  things  created;  to  that  depth  and  that 
height  at  which  man  touches  the  material  and  im- 
material orders  at  once  ;  until  we  see  God  taking 
creation,  summed  up  in  human  nature,  into  alliance 
with  His  eternal  and  infinite  Being,  in  a  unity 
in   which  they  are    to    continue   and  abide    hence- 

*   "  Legends  of  the  Monastic  Orders,"  p.  241. 


32  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

forth  and  forever."^  In  the  person  of  the  Son  of 
God,  the  Godhead  and  Manhood  were  joined  to- 
gether, never  to  be  divided.  But  man  is  the  crown 
of  creation  ;  and  through  him  God  draws  His  own 
work  lovingly  to   Himself. 

I  shall  call  your  attention  in  the  next  lecture 
to  some  other  aspects  of  the  Sacramental  System 
in  which  it  is  commended  to  our  confidence  and 
faith.  But,  in  conclusion,  let  me  speak  briefly  on 
two  points  which  come  in  here,  va  the  discussion 
of   our  subject. 

Through  the  mortal  body  is  established  the  con- 
nection between  man  and  the  material  creation. 
But  the  body  is  an  integral  part  of  us,  not  less 
necessary  to  our  perfection  and  completeness  than 
the  intelligence,  the  spirit,  and  the  soul.  ''Perfect 
man^  of  a  reasonable  soul  and  Jinvian  flesh  subsist- 
ing. .  .  .  T/ie  reasonable  soul  and  flesh  is  one 
many  f  A  reasonable  soul  without  human  flesh 
is  not  perfect  man  ;  a  man  without  a  body  would 
not  be  a  man.  The  permanence  of  the  body  and 
the  flesh,  accordingly,  is  a  truth  of  the  Catholic 
religion.      The    body  is  to  live  forever,  as  well  as 

*  See   Art.    II.      ''  The  Godhead  and    Manhood  were  joined  to- 
gether in  One  Person,   never  to  be  divided," 
f  Symbol  called  Quictirujue  vuli. 


BASIS  OF    THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        33 

the  soul ;  with  the  soul  it  is  co-heir  of  immortality  ; 
and  therefore,  in  preparation  for  its  higher  destiny, 
it  is  now  the  subject  of  refining,  purifying,  and 
restorative  processes,  intended  to  cleanse,  to  feed, 
to  maintain  it  in  strength  and  health,  and  to  insure 
its  rescue  from  the  rude  and  awful  shock  of  death. 
It  is  to  be  redeemed,  raised  up,  and  made  (to  use 
St.  Paul's  description),  a(l)dapToy^  Svvarov,  nvev- 
jLiaTiHOVj  incorruptible,  powerful,  glorious.  The 
human  body  is  not  a  mere  shell,  which  the  exult- 
ant spirit  is  to  burst  some  day,  glad  to  be  rid  of  its 
old  companion  ;  it  is  not  an  empty  sign,  to  disap- 
pear by  and  by  forever  ;  it  is  the  permanent  and 
necessary  equipment  of  man  as  man.  In  the  sight 
of  a  Christian  the  body  is  a  sacred  thing.  The 
Holy  Ghost  makes  it  His  temple  ;  to  profane  it  is 
sacrilege."^  It  is  to  be  offered  as  a  living  sacrifice, 
holy  and  acceptable  to  God.f  Man's  service  is,  first, 
last,  and  always,  a  bodily  service.  Corporal  and 
spiritual  works  of  mercy  go  on  together.  Grace  is 
given  to  the  body,  as  well  as  to  the  soul ;  our  sinful 
bodies  are  made  clean  by  the  touch  of  the  Body  of 
the  Lord  in  Holy  Communion.  The  Sacramental 
System  accords  with  this   conception  of  the  place 

*  I  Cor.  vi.  19.  f  Rom.  xii.  i. 


34  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

and  destiny  of  the  human  body  ;  and  wherever 
that  system  is  rejected,  we  may  expect  to  find 
conceptions  and  notions  of  our  nature  and  our 
state  better  befitting  a  pagan  than  a  Christian  ; 
perhaps  a  disbelief  in  the  resurrection  of  that 
Blessed  Body  in  which  our  salvation  was  wrought 
out ;  perhaps,  if  not  certainly,  disbelief  in  the  resur- 
rection of  our  own.  Philosophic  idealism,  pre- 
sumptuous spiritualism,  are  the  inevitable  refuge 
of  him  who  misconceives  the  constitution  of  human 
nature,  and  denies  to  the  body  its  place  and  rights. 
That  man,  in  his  death,  is  instantly  to  pass  into 
the  condition  of  abstract  and  incorporeal  spirit, 
and  so  to  remain,  glad  and  content,  forever,  is  an 
idea  which  rests  on  no  good  evidence,  and  brings 
no  comfort  ;  it  is  little  less  disquieting  and  alarm- 
ing than  the  thought  that  man  must 

"     .     .     .     .     drop  from  out  this  universal  frame, 
Into  that  shapeless,    scopeless,    blank  abyss, 
That  utter  notliingness   from   which  he  came."* 

From  such  terrifying  dreams  we  are  saved  by 
faith  in  the  Sacramental  System,  in  its  principles 
and  application.  It  deals  with  us,  not  as  pure 
spirits  caged   for  a  while   in   deleterious   bodies,  but 

*  "  Dream  of  Gerontius." 


BASIS   OF    THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.       35 

as  real  and  true  men  ;  it  gives  us  credit  for  all  that 
we  are  ;  it  asserts  the  worth  and  dignity  of  the 
body  ;  declares  it  to  be  a  sharer  with  the  soul  in 
redemption  ;  predicts  its  survival  and  future  devel- 
opment in  a  higher  state  ;  draws  on  the  material 
world  for  help  ;  and  uses  as  instrumental  means  for 
spiritual  ends,  things  below  the  intellectual  order. 
There  is  a  fitness  here  which  can  hardly  be  de- 
nied. 

By  one  more  consideration  is  this  view  of  the 
Sacramental  System  supported.  In  Holy  Scripture, 
we  find  the  positive  assertion  of  the  retention  of 
some  of  those  things  with  which  we  are  now  con- 
nected, and  their  continuance  hereafter  under  new 
conditions  and  in  new  forms.  It  is  a  consoling  and 
tranquillizing  thought.  Consider  this  beautiful  and 
wonderful  universe  ;  the  revealer  of  the  glory  of  the 
Lord,  the  teacher,  the  prophet,  the  treasure-house 
of  mystic  symbolism  ;  this  home  of  wayfaring  men, 
so  dear,  so  pleasant  ;  why  should  its  doom  be,  like 
that  of  the  wicked,  complete  destruction  and  per- 
petual disuse  and  darkness  ?  Is  there  really  any 
ground  for  the  statement  that  annihilation,  non- 
existence, is  to  be  the  end  of  these  works  of  His 
hands  ?  Are  we  not  told  the  very  reverse  ?  Why 
should  not  nature,  though  full   of  disorder  and  dis- 


3^  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

tress,  be  hereafter  purified,  restored,  and  brought 
back  to  the  state  in  which  the  Voice  proclaimed  it 
good  ?  Are  there  not,  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
in  the  New,  words  to  that  effect  ?  The  intimations 
are  not  obscure;  we  look  for  a  work  of  reparation 
and  renewal,  as  among  the  final  purposes  of  the 
Lord.  "  TJie  earth  and  the  zvorks  that  are  therein 
shall  be  burned  up  .  .  .  the  heavens  being  on 
fire  shall  be  dissolved,  and  the  elements  shall  melt 
witJi  fervent  heat.''  But  is  this  to  be  the  end? 
Nay,  it  says  :  "  We,  according  to  his  promise,  look 
for  nezv  heavens  and  a  nezu  earth,  zvhereifi  dzuelleth 
righteousness.''  -  Prophets  of  old  testified  to  the 
same  effect.  "  Behold,  I  create  nezv  heavens  and  a 
nezv  eartJi,"  saith  the  Spirit  by  the  mouth  of  Isaiah. f 
'^  And  I  sazv  nezv  heavens  and  a  nezv  earth''  responds 
the  Evangelist,  in  his  vision,  by  the  saine  Spirit.;]: 
Such  statements  present  no  difficulty  to  a  believer 
in  the  Incarnation.  It  seems  reasonable  to  him, 
that  as  man  is  to  be  raised  from  death  and  made 
glorious,  powerful,  and  incorruptible,  so  the  crea- 
tion of  which  he  is  the  sum  and  crown  may  also 
arise,  glorious  and  beautiful,  out  of  the  flames  of 
future    burnings;    that   this   wliole  creation,   which 

*  2  Pet.  iii.  10.  f  Isa.  Ixv.  17.  %  Rev.  xxi.  i. 


BASIS  OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        3/ 

now  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together,  may 
hereafter  rejoice  and  give  thanks  as  when  the  morn- 
ing stars  sang  together  and  all  the  sons  of  God 
shouted  for  joy."  The  creature  looketh  for  tlie 
redemption  of  the  body;  why,  unless  perceiving, 
through  some  inexplicable  consciousness,  that  its 
own  redemption  is  bound  up  in  ours  ?  It  would 
not  be,  I  think,  profane  to  surmise,  that  as  God  is 
preparing  mankind  for  life  and  everlasting  felicity, 
so  He  may  be  employing  other  sacramental  means, 
unknown  to  us,  by  which,  in  other  departments  of 
nature,  a  work  is  even  now  in  progress,  the  results 
of  which  are  hereafter  to  appear — results  which 
may  overwhelm  our  narrow  and  selfish  thinkers 
with  complete  confusion. 

"What  is  this  creation?  "asks  St.  Chrysostom,  in  com- 
menting on  the  words  of  St.  Paul.  "  Not  thyself  alone,  but 
that  also  which  is  thy  inferior,  and  partaketh  not  of  reason 
or  sense,  this,  too,  shall  be  a  sharer  in  thy  blessings.  For  it 
shall  be  freed,  he  says,  from  the  bondage  of  corruption  ; 
that  is,  it  shall  no  longer  be  corruptible,  but  shall  go  along 
with  the  beauty  given  to  thy  body  ;  just  as  when  this  became 
corruptible  that  became  corruptible  also  ;  so,  now  it  is  made 
incorruptible,  that  also  shall  follow  it  too.  .  .  .  Thou  art 
suffering  for  thyself;  the  creation  for  thee.     ...     As  men, 

*  Job,  xxxviii.  7. 


38  LEX  TEN  LECTURES. 

when  a  son  is  to  appear  at  his  coming  to  a  dignity,  clothe 
even  the  servants  with  a  brighter  garment,  to  the  glory  of 
the  son,  so  will  God  also  clothe  the  creature  with  incor- 
ruption   for  the  glorious    liberty  of  the   children     .     .     ." 

And,  elsewhere,  the   father  adds: 

"  He  partially  exposes  to  thy  view  the  things  to  come,  set- 
ting before  thee  the  change  of  thy  body,  and  along  with  it 
the  change  of  the  whole  creation."* 

It  is  time  to  bring  these  remarks  to  a  close. 
They  are  mere  suggestions  or  hints  on  a  subject 
so  wide  and  so  full  of  wonder  and  mystery  that 
a  volume  would  hardly  suffice  for  its  full  discussion. 
They  are  left  to  you,  for  reflection,  before  we  pro- 
ceed to  some  considerations  of  an  inferior,  but, 
perhaps,  a  more  popular  and  practical  character. 
Let  me  close  what  has  been  said  thus  far,  by 
quoting  the  words  of  Godet  : 

"As  in  our  present  body  we  see  the  two  systems,  animal 
and  vegetable,  which  are  around  us,  converging,  and  in  them 
nature,  as  it  is  on  earth,  in  its  entirety  ;  so  will  the  future 
body  be  the  centre  of  a  nature  renewed  and  glorified,  freed 
from  the  law  of  vanity  and  death.  The  ideal,  after  which  are 
instinctively  yearning,  not  men  only,  but,  as  St.  Paul  says,  all 
creatures,  will  be  realized."! 

*  St.  Chrys.,  Horn.  xiv.  on  Rom.  viii.  21-23. 
f  "  Studies  on  the  Old  Testament,"  ii.  p.  62. 


BASIS   OF    THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM.        39 

And  to  these  words  let  me  add  others  of  a  doctor 
and  teacher  of  our  own  Church,  and  a  professor 
emeritus  of  this  seminary,  commending  to  your 
attention  the  entire  passage  of  which  they  form  a 
part  : 

"  The  work  of  redemption  closely  corresponded  to  that  of 
creation,  and  therefore  is  properly  a  new  creation,  whether 
we  regard  it  in  its  effects  upon  individual  men,  upon  the 
whole  company  of  the  redeemed,  or  upon  all  the  creation  of 
which  man  was  the  crown.  It  will  not  reach  its  destined  end 
till  the  creation  that  has  been  darkened  and  ruined  by  sin 
shall  be  restored  to  its  original  beauty  and  perfection."* 

*  Professor  Buel  :  "  Treatise  of  Dogmatic  Theology,"  Vol.  I,  ch. 
VI.,  of  Creation  and  Providence  :  see  whole  passage,  pp.  250-253. 


II. 

THE  SACRAMENTAL  SYSTEM  COEXTEN- 
SIVE  WITH  THE  LIFE  AND  EXPE- 
RIENCE   OF    MANKIND. 


LECTURE    II. 

THE    SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM    COEXTENSIVE   WITH 
THE    LIFE   AND    EXPERIENCE    OF   MANKIND. 

In  the  first  lecture  of  this  course  your  attention 
was  directed  to  what  are  deemed  to  be  the  real 
foundations  of  the  Sacramental  System.  Every 
structure  stands  upon  a  basement  of  some  sort  ; 
and  it  appeared  to  me  that  the  first  thing  to  be 
done,  in  the  defence  and  vindication  of  a  system  so 
misunderstood  as  this,  was  to  show  that  we  have 
something  to  allege  in  its  behalf  more  weighty  than 
considerations  of  convenience  or  the  perception  of 
a  general  agreement  w^ith  things  in  the  world.  The 
Cathedral,  the  Capitol,  the  Chambers  of  Justice, 
and  whatever  other  edifices  there  be,  stand  on 
substructures;  the  larger  the  edifice,  the  broader 
spread  the  courses  of  masonry  below.  What  shall 
be  said  of  the  Sacramental  System,  whose  maker 
and  builder  is  God,  which  is  ample  enough  to  gather 
in  the  nations  ;  in  whose  successive  stories,  as  they 
rise  upward,  room  and  place  are  provided  for  all 
people,  tongues,  and  languages  of   the  redeemed  ? 


44  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

Must  not  a  structure  such  as  this  have  a  foundation 
commensurate  with  its  proportions  and  adequate  to 
its  design  ?  That  is  what  I  have  already  suggested 
for  your  consideration,  alleging  that  a  system  so 
large  and  grand  may  be  regarded  as  undoubtedly 
anchored  somewhere  in  the  roots  and  bases  of  the 
universe  itself.  Nor  does  it  make  against  this  view 
of  the  case,  that  men  protest  their  inability  to  see 
any  such  foundation,  and  challenge  us  to  describe 
it  accurately,  and  to  explain  how  it  was  laid.  Who 
sees  the  foundation  of  any  building,  large  or  small? 
"What  architects  call  the  Footings  are  not  seen, 
nor  were  they  meant  to  be  seen.  With  care  and 
close  calculation  are  they  laid,  and  then  they  are  at 
once  hidden  away  ;  none  knows  exactly  their  dimen- 
sions or  arrangement  but  the  man  who  set  them  in 
their  place  ;  basement,  story,  and  stage  after  stage 
tower  up  in  the  air,  but  these  are  not  the  founda- 
tions;  and  but  for  those  footings,  they  would  col- 
lapse and  crumble  away.  So  is  it  with  the  works  of 
God  in  nature  and  in  grace  ;  we  see  the  upper  stages, 
we  do  not  see  that  underneath  from  which  they 
spring  and  on  which  they  rest.  I  have  sought  to  in- 
dicate, by  way  of  suggestion,  the  direction  in  which 
v/e  must  look  for  the  footings  of  the  Sacramental 
System  ;  and    this,   in    order  to   lift   the   subject   at 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.        45 

once  from  the  place  of  expediencies,  conveniences, 
and  utilitarian  considerations,  and  to  place  it  where 
it  belongs,  among  things  supernatural.  Having 
done  so,  the  way  is  open  for  a  passage  to  the 
simpler  and  more  intelligible  aspects  of  our  subject. 
As  a  practical  arrangement  it  has  other  claims  on 
confidence.  Questions  about  fitness,  adaptation, 
congruity,  correspondence  to  our  state  and  con- 
stitution, have  their  importance  and  interest;  but 
however  the  system  may  be  commended  on  these 
accounts,  it  must  be  remembered  that  they  are  not 
of  the  foundation,  and  that  to  study  them  belongs 
to  a  secondary  department  in  theology.  For  this 
reason  it  seemed  necessary,  before  speaking  par- 
ticularly of  such  rites  as  Holy  Baptism  and  Holy 
Communion,  of  Confirmation,  of  Holy  Matrimony, 
of  Holy  Order,  of  Absolution,  and  Unction,  to 
waive  for  the  time  the  question  of  the  intent,  the 
value,  and  the  effect  of  each,  and  to  try  and  find 
the  mysterious  and  recondite  cause  which  makes 
them  what  they  are,  and  connects  them  with  worlds 
above  and  worlds  below.  There,  in  fact,  must  the 
line  be  drawn  —  if  we  are  to  think  and  speak  as 
reverent  students  of  Catholic  theology  —  between 
the  conception  of  sacraments  as  mere  signs  and 
forms,  of  value  in  the  using,  but  devoid  of  intrinsic 


46  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

virtue,  and  sacraments  regarded  as  powers  of  the 
world  to  come,  and  holding  within  them  something 
of  that  mystery  which  surrounds  man  on  every 
hand.  And  it  is  the  more  important  to  begin  at 
that  starting-point,  because  of  the  intense  aversion 
of  the  popular  mind  to  the  thing  which  makes  the 
Sacramental  System  a  reality  and  a  truth.  For  we 
may  at  once  admit,  and  frankly,  that  to  the  concep- 
tion of  the  system  as  it  has  been  presented  to  you, 
the  spirit  of  the  age  is  decidedly  and  strongly 
averse.  Men  will  take  anything  from  us  so  long 
as  we  make  no  draft  on  their  faith  ;  but  as  soon 
as  it  comes  to  marvels  and  miracles,  and  results 
transcending  the  natural  powers  of  the  understand- 
ing, there  is  an  end  of  their  respect  for  our  intelli- 
gence or  their  confidence  in  us  as  guides.  There 
would  be  no  objection  to  sacraments  considered  as 
outward  forms,  pictorial  representations,  or  sym- 
bolic acts  ;  just  as  there  is  no  objection  to  a  creed  if 
every  man  is  permitted  to  put  on  it  what  sense  he 
pleases,  or  to  ritual  so  long  as  it  means  nothing ; 
but  when  we  speak  of  sacraments  as  channels  of 
grace,  and  supernatural  agencies  in  the  process  of 
man's  salvation,  good-by  at  once  to  trust,  to  re- 
spect, and  even  to  the  use  of  polite  language. 
Sacraments,  if   that   is  what  they  mean,  are  mum- 


THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.        47 

mery  and  magic  ;  soul-destroying,  Christ-concealing 
inventions  ;  a  snare,  a  delusion,  an  offence  to  the 
simple  ;  and  the  teachers  of  sacramental  religion 
are  mediaeval  formalists,  deceived  and  being  de- 
ceived. Baptism,  for  example,  is  well  enough  as 
a  ceremony  of  initiation,  or  a  sign  of  profession  and 
mark  of  difference  ;  nay,  as  such,  and  as  performed 
in  a  particular  manner,  it  is  the  badge  of  a  sect 
numbering  in  these  United  States  some  three 
millions  of  adherents  ;  but  it  cannot  be  an  instru- 
ment of  regeneration,  seeing  that — as  the  ob- 
jector states  it — regeneration  may  take  place  be- 
fore or  after  the  reception  of  baptism,  but  cannot 
by  any  possibility  occur  at  the  moment  of  the 
administration  ;  while  in  the  case  of  the  Lord's  k 
Supper  the  only  thing  to  be  strenuously  asserted 
is  that  "this  is  not  His  Body,"  and  that  "this  is 
not  His  Blood." 

An  opposition  so  widespread  and  so  inveterate 
cannot  be  successfully  dealt  with  as  a  mere  preju- 
dice, which  in  time  may  pass  away  ;  it  is  the  re- 
sult of  fundamental  error  on  the  subject  of  the 
sacraments.  In  such  cases  nothing  comes  of  play- 
ing about  the  edges  of  the  question  ;  we  must  go 
to  the  root  of  the  matter.  The  intense  hostility 
to    sacramental   doctrine    which    characterizes    the 


48  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

'1/^  \\[.  Protestant  mind    appears  to  be  the  result  of  long 

'  '  ,     and    persistent    inculcation    of    the    principles    of 

/  philosophic  idealism  and  exaggerated  spiritualism, 
by  teachers  misinformed  on  the  origin,  constitu- 
tion, and  destiny  of  man,  and  his  relations  to  the 
universe  ;  and  until  people  are  set  right  on  'tliose 
points  they  cannot  see,  and  ought  not  to  be  ex- 
pected to  see,  what  the  doctrine  of  the  Church 
means  and  how  vitally  it  touches  us.  Wherever  the 
constitution  of  man,  his  place  in  the  material  uni- 
verse, and  his  future  destiny,  bodily  and  spiritually, 
/  ,  are  not  rightly  understood  ;  wherever  he  is  regarded 

?Ui  ^/t^j<j-Y .  as  an  intelligence  temporarily  served  by  a  material 
organism  which  is  an  encumbrance,  and  of  which  it 
were  advantageous  to  be  rid  forever  ;  wherever  the 
permanence   of   the  body  in  spiritual   and   glorified 


2- 


conditions   is  denied ;    where  God    is    regarded   as 


t>^ 


'<J-C<;«a.<A*-      cutting  Himself  off  from  the  universe  and   looking 

on,  indifTerent  and  isolated,  while  things  grind  along 

machine-like,  without   oversight  or  interference   on 

His  part ;  where  it  is  forgotten  that  God    is  still  a 

creator,  and  ever  working  as  such  within  the  world, 

in    operations    personally    directed    by     Himself  ; 

-li  wherever  mind   is  exalted  above  heart,  and   man  is 

V*^''^^;'^^'^    lauded  as  all  but  a  deity,  and  regarded  as  sufficient 

iPjI^v^<»^>»^-*^  to  himself  without   the  need  of   outside  aid  ;  wher- 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.        49 

ever  it  is  taught  that  purity  in   religion   depends  on 
detaching  one's  self   from    the  visible  and  palpable,  SZ    - 

and  trusting  to  inner  light,  intuitions,  rational  proc-    "^^'^^-^^''^ 
esses,  and  subjective  impressions — there,  of  course, 
man  must  reject  the  Catholic  teaching  on  the  sacra- 
ments, for  it  flatly  contradicts  every  one  of   those  j\ 
cherished  ideas  of  the  natural  heart.     It  needs  no  '  ^ 
other  schooling  than   that  received   from  this  ideal 
philosophy  to  lead  a  man   to  reject  the  visible  and 
institutional  in  religion  ;  to  affect  severe   simplicity 
in  worship  ;   to  make  him  suspicious  of  form,  sym- 
bolism,  and  whatever  addresses   the  senses  and  the 
imagination  ;  to  look  askance   and  with   unfriendly 
eye   on    liturgical   order,    exterior  magnificence    in 
worship,   the    visible   beauty  of    color,    ceremonial, 
sight,  and   sound,  as  belonging   to  a  rudimental  and 
unspiritual  religion,  and  deserving  no  consideration 
from   one  who,   as  he  boasts,  has  outgrown    baby- 
hood and  come  to  the  full  stature  of  the  intelligent 
and  rational  man.     That  these  and   the  like  are  the 
serious  convictions   of  the  impugners  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Church  on  the  sacraments  of  the  Gospel 
cannot  be   doubted,  when    we   consider  with    what  .x^.,  .     '  ^ 
supercilious    confidence   they    conduct    themselves /i''^U>,^  •- 
towards  us,  and  how  high  an  estimate  they  set  on! 

their  alleged  emancipation  from  superstition.     It  is 
4 


50  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

a  race  which  worldly  philosophy  has  engendered  in 
its  womb,  and  nurtures  at  its  cold,  unsympathetic 
breast. 

What  can  be  done  for  men  thus  wandering  afar 
from  the  things  belonging  to  their  peace,  under  the 
control  of  prejudices  such  as  have  been  described, 
it  is  hard  to  say  :  but  as  the  trouble  lies  at  the 
base  of  all  their  thoughts,  it  seemed  necessary,  in 
treating  of  the  sacraments  of  the  Gospel,  to  begin 
at  the  beginning.  For  that  reason  I  spoke  to  you 
of  nature,  as  the  handiwork  of  God  ;  of  creation,  as 
originally  very  good  ;  of  the  place  of  man  in  nat- 
ure, and  his  intimate  relations  to  "  the  creature," 
as  St.  Paul,  in  our  version,  calls  it;  of  the  develop- 
ment and  future  of  man  and  nature,  on  lines 
trending  in  the  same  direction  ;  of  the  summing 
up  of  all  things  in  the  Incarnate  Word,  who  is 
called  '' the  first-born  of  every  creature T  "^  And 
having  thus  reminded  you  that  *'  all  things  are  ours, 
and  that  we  are  Christ's,  and  that  Christ  is  God's,"  t 
it  was  suggested  as  natural  and  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  indications  of  the  relationship  between 
man  and  nature  maybe  traceable;  that  practical 
purposes  may  be  served,  by  the  ministration  of  nat- 

"  Col.  i.  15.  \  I  Cor.  iii.  23. 


THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.        51 

ural  elements  to  man  in  his  supernatural  life  ;  that 
through  objects  sanctified  to  a  higher  use,  strength 
and  grace  may  flow  from  Christ  to  men  ;  that  simple, 
natural  elements  may  be  transmuted  for  a  strange 
and  mystical  ministry  to  us  both  in  body  and  soul; 
that  such  transformation  and  exaltation  of  the  creat- 
ure carries  in  it  the  prophecy  of  even  greater 
things  than  these;  that  as  man,  complete  in  a  re- 
covered body  and  a  ransomed  soul,  is  destined  to 
live  on  in  a  higher  state  than  this,  so  the  whole 
creation,  guided  by  a  divine  instinct,  is  looking 
out  anxiously  and  hopefully  for  some  benediction 
and  help  as  coincident  with  "the  redemption  of 
our  body,"  '^  that  great  event  towards  which  all 
moves  and  on  which  all  converges.  Godet,  in  his 
''  Studies  on  the  Old  Testament,"  has  well  and  elo- 
quently traced  a  progress  and  development  through 
creation,  which  surely  has  not  yet  reached  its  final 
mark. 

"On  the  theatre  of  nature  unconscious  life  has  been  exer- 
cised, a  slave  to  the  senses.  On  the  stage  of  history  the 
human  soul  has  displayed  the  riches  of  life,  self-conscious 
and  free.  In  the  Church  (understanding  this  word  in  its  most 
spiritual  sense)  there  grew  up,  and  has  since  developed  itself, 

*  Rom.  viii.  23. 


52  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

a  new  thing — the  life  of  holy  love,  realized  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  by  Him  communicated  to  us.  Finally,  in  that  supreme 
abode  which  we  call  heaven,  this  perfect  life,  divine  in  -its 
essence,  human  in  its  form,  will  expand  and  radiate  through 
matter  then  glorified."  * 

Thus  does  the  material  world  minister  to  rts 
terrestrial  head  ;  thus  do  material  elements  receive 
a  present  glorification  and  change  for  transcenden- 
tal use;  thus  does  man  draw  along  with  him  the 
whole  order  in  which  he  has  his  place,  while  ad- 
\  vancing  towards  completed  redemption  ;  and  here 
we  find  the  meaning  of  a  divine  arrangement  which 
extends  the  Incarnation  through  the  ages,  and  links 
us  to  Christ,  and,  in  Christ,  to  God.  Such  are  the 
more  recondite  aspects  in  which  this  teaching  chal- 
lenges our  faith  and  cheers  us  in  the  darkness  of 
our  present  life. 

But  now,  having  completed  the  first  part  of  our 
work,  we  may  proceed  to  study  more  closely  that 
which  rises  on  this  foundation.  The  bases  are, 
indeed,  mysterious,  obscure,  and  hidden  from  the 
sight;  but  it  is  easy  to  study  the  superstructure, 
and  note  the  general  arrangement  of  the  edifice, 
its  adaptation  to  its  purposes,  and   its  perfect  cor- 

*  "  Studies  on  the  Old  Testament,"  p.  63. 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.         53 

respondence  with  the  order  of  the  visible  world 
and  the  plan  according  to  which  we  and  all  things 
about  us  live  and  move  and  act.  The  region  thus 
far  traversed  may  be,  and  doubtless  will  be,  re- 
garded by  many  as  a  place  of  speculation  and 
dreamery.  Studies  such  as  these  do  not  commend 
themselves  to  every  mind  ;  and  if,  in  saying  what 
has  been  said,  we  had  spoken  our  last  word  on  the 
subject,  it  would  have  been  said  to  no  purpose  in 
the  ears  of  the  children  of  this  generation.  But 
there  is  much  more  to  come.  Catholic  theology  is 
broad  and  deep  ;  it  fails  us  not,  wherever  we  need 
its  help.  Profound  though  it  be,  it  is  no  less  prac- 
tical. It  has  its  commonplace  side,  on  which  it 
meets  the  commonplace  mind,  and  challenges  the 
attention  of  that  class,  who,  disliking  abstract 
study,  want  to  know  precisely  what  a  thing  is 
worth,  and  are  not  interested  until  it  is  presented 
in  a  business  shape,  under  conditions  in  which 
they  can  set  to  with  square,  line,  and  scales,  with 
tables  of  figures  and  a  schedule  of  prices,  and 
bring  it  down  to  a  calculation  and  a  commercial 
result.  Even  so  the  Sacramental  System  may 
challenge  study  and  will  reward  it ;  for  we  hold 
that  it  is  in  no  sense  a  theory,  a  speculation,  or 
an  invention   of  romantic  enthusiasts,  but   a   very 


54  LENTEN  LECTURES, 

plain,  simple,  and  practical  thing,  by  the  help  of 
which  a  man  may  live  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
good  of  his  fellows,  if  he  knows  the  obligations 
which  it  imposes  and  fulfils  the  duties  which  it 
enjoins.  Let  us  then  proceed  to  consider  it  under 
some  lower  points  of  view. 

To  one  brought  up  in  the  Anglican  Church,  the 
first  thing  thought  of  when  a  sacrament  is  men- 
tioned   is   this,  that   it   is  a  Sign. 

"What   meanest  thou   by   this  word   sacrament?" 

"  I  mean  an  outward  and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and 

spiritual   grace." 

"  How  many    parts  are   there   in  a  sacrament  ?  " 
"Two;    the    outward    visible    sign,    and    the   inward   and 

spiritual   grace." 

Here  we  strike  a  line  on  which  the  aptness  of 
these  ordinances  to  the  wants  of  man  comes  into 
view.  For  the  use  of  signs  is  so  extensive  that 
there  is  no  part  of  the  visible  creation  with  which 
we  are  acquainted  in  which  they  are  not  employed  ; 
they  are  the  familiar  and  necessary  conditions  to 
individual  intercourse  and  combination  for  social 
action.  The  sign  system  is  as  high  as  heaven,  as 
far  spread  as  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  all-pervad- 
ing, and  everywhere  in  use  for  the  purposes  of 
personal   and   social   life. 


THE   SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM  APPLIED.         55 

What  is  a  sign  ?  Something  which  stands  for 
something  else  ;  something  or  other,  exterior,  visi- 
ble, palpable,  audible,  which  signifies,  and  usually 
or  always  conceals,  something  invisible,  intangible, 
interior.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the  word,  and  if 
sacraments  are  signs,  then  by  a  sacramental  system 
is  meant  a  system  of  such  signs.  Now  we  assert, 
and  challenge  a  denial  of  the  assertion,  that  such 
a  system  surrounds  and  hems  in  the  entire  life  of 
man.  Look  on  the  universe  of  which  we  form  a 
part.  We  are  on  the  old  ground  again,  but  now 
we  are  studying  the  subject  from  a  different  point 
of  view  ;  not  meditating  of  matters  occult  and 
hidden  in  the  secret  working  of  the  Almighty 
Creator,  but  taking  note  of  the  common  facts  of 
daily  life  ;  it  is  not  now  the  deep  mystery  of  nature 
which  calls  our  attention,  but  the  peculiar  mode  on 
which  it  has  been  organized  and  in  which  things 
present  themselves  for  inspection. 

I.  God's  works  in  nature  constitute  a  series  of 
products  of  creative  power,  throughout  which  may 
be  discerned  the  two  parts  of  the  sacrament,  a  vis- 
ible form  and  an  invisible  life.  It  is  a  universe  of 
signs  and  sacraments;  nature,  throughout,  is  sacra- 
mental. The  things  about  us,  amidst  which  we 
live,  move,  and  have  our  being,  are   subject   to  ob- 


56  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

servation  by  the  senses  ;  we  can  explore,  investi- 
gate, experiment,  but  full  early  a  point  is  reached 
at  which  further  investigation  would  prove  useless. 
Elementary  substances,  limited  and  few  in  number, 
take  innumerable  forms.  But  each  of  these  forms 
is  a  mere  exterior  wrapper ;  each  veils  what  we  call 
life,  and  what  life  is  no  man  can  tell. 

"  Life  !  Who  understands  it  ?  Who  has  seen  it  ?  It  is 
like  the  goddess  Isis,  ^vhose  veil  may  never  be  lifted  by  mor- 
tal hand.  We  take  life  as  a  fact  ;  we  ascertain  its  beginning, 
development,  end,  but  we  cannot  explain  it." 

So  writes  a  serious  author.  But  is  he  right  in 
asserting  that  we  ascertain  its  beginning?  Not  so, 
except  that  it  begins  with  God,  and  that  God  is 
life  eternal.  We  know  very  little  about  life.  One 
thing  we  know  ;  it  is  impossible  to  point  to  any  sat- 
isfactory experimental  proof  that  life  can  be  devel- 
oped save  from  demonstrable  antecedent  life  ;  that 
the  conditions  under  which  matter  assumes  the 
properties  we  call  vital  have  never  yet  been  artifi- 
cially brought  together."  It  is  a  settled  conviction 
that   life   in    its   essence   is  something    beyond  any 

*  "Winds  of  Doctrine:  being  an  examination  of  the  modern 
theories  of  Automatism  and  Evolution."  By  Charles  Elani,  M.D., 
pp.  78,  79.  94>  loy. 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.         57 

combination  of  physical  forces ;  in  short,  that  Hfe 
has  no  physical  correlate.  In  vain  have  philos- 
ophers of  a  certain  school  endeavored  to  establish 
the  proposition  that  the  earliest  organisms  were  the 
natural  product  of  the  interactions  of  ordinary  in- 
organic matter  and  force.  Neither  observation, 
experiment,  nor  reason  gives  any  testimony  in  favor 
of  such  a  view ;  on  the  contrary,  the  conclusion  is 
an  irresistible  one,  that  life  is  in  all  cases  due  either 
to  antecedent  life  or  to  a  power  and  force  from 
without  that  is  not  identical  nor  correlated  with 
the  ordinary  physical  forces. 

"  Supposing,"  says  Canon  Mason,  "that  the  whole  fabric  of 
inorganic  matter,  with  its  wonders  of  light  and  heat  and  elec- 
tricity, with  its  planetary  systems,  with  the  beauties  of  water, 
air,  and  earth,  were  the  result  of  an  accidental  play  of  atoms, 
yet  life,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  cannot  be  accounted  for  in  the 
same  way.  It  is  as  nearly  certain  as  anything  can  be  that 
the  conditions  of  matter  were  at  one  time  such — the  solar 
system  consisting  of  matter  at  a  white  heat — that  no  kind  of 
organic  life  such  as  we  are  acquainted  with  was  possible  in 
it.  Organic  life,  then,  has  had  a  beginning  in  the  world  even 
if  matter  and  force  have  not.  How  did  it  begin  ?  Experi- 
mental evidence  cannot  establish  a  negative,  but  the  re- 
searches of  men  unprejudiced  and  competent  confirm  us  in 
supposing  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  spontaneous  genera- 
tion.    Science  knows  of  no  life  which  had  not  a  living  parent, 


58  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

and  science  teaches  that  once  there  were  no  living  parents  on 
earth  to  produce  a  life.  Yet  here  life  is.  The  chasm  be- 
tween the  noblest  form  of  inorganic  being  and  the  lowest 
form  of  organic — a  crystal,  for  instance,  and  a  cell  of  proto- 
plasm— is  so  great  that  no  connecting  link  can  be  found.  So 
far  as  we  see,  no  evolution  works  gradually  up  to  life.  It  is  a 
sudden,  startling  phenomenon,  which  uses  matter  and  force 
for  its  own  purposes,  but  which  is  not  derived  from  them. 
Whence  was  the  first  life  introduced  into  a  world  which  had 
once  been  incapable  of  harboring  it,  and  which  seems  forever 
incapable  of  producing  it  ?  "  * 

Beneath  the  form,  then,  is  an  inner,  unseen  prin- 
ciple which  evades  search  and  defies  comprehen- 
sion. It  comes  downward  into  these  forms  ;  it  is 
never  spontaneously  generated  ;  that  only  which 
has  life  can  give  life.  What  it  is,  no  one  can  tell 
us.  The  outspread  heavens,  the  myriad  orbs  of 
night,  the  solar  system,  earth,  dry  land,  seas,  valley 
and  hill,  the  mineral,  floral,  and  animal  kingdoms 
all  keep  the  secret  close.  What  and  whence  is  life? 
Matter  has  form,  shape,  and  extension  ;  it  is  sub- 
ject to  quantitative  and  qualitative  analysis,  but  it 
is  "  informed,"  indwelt,  by  something  else  invisi- 
ble, immaterial,  inexplicable,  which  no  one  can  de- 
scribe or  explain.      What  is  life  ?     No  one  knows. 

*  "  Faith  of  the  Gospel,"  pp.  8,  9. 


THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.         59 

Whence  is  life?  Let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  a 
great  student  of  nature.  Charles  Darwin  says:  '*  I 
infer  from  analogy  that  probably  all  the  organic 
beings  which  have  ever  lived  on  this  earth  have 
descended  from  some  one  form  into  which  life  was 
first  breathed  by  the  Creator."  If  that  inference  as 
to  the  origin  of  life  be  just,  w^e  have  all  that  we 
need  for  the  point  in  hand.  Creation  is  one  vast 
Sacramental  System  ;  an  endless  and  overwhelming 
variety  of  outward  and  visible  forms  or  signs,  quick- 
ened by  an  invisible  and  incomprehensible  vital 
force.  Life  is  in  everything ;  in  everything  it  is 
concealed  ;  it  comes  not  from  any  natural  source  ; 
it  is  a  gift  of  the  Creator  who  alone  hath  life  in 
Himself.  What  we  hold  to  be  true  of  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  Gospel  is,  in  fact,  no  more  than  what 
we  trace  everywhere  throughout  creation;  and  to 
object  to  our  claim  and  declaration  that,  although 
visible  and  material  in  form,  they  contain  and  con- 
vey an  inward  and  spiritual  grace  and  power,  is  as 
unreasonable  as  to  deny  what  we  certainly  know  to 
be  true  of  everything  about  us  which  hath  the 
breath  of  life  ;  of  the  creatures  which  have  a  mate- 
rial organism,  and  within  it  a  quickening  principle 
originally  derived  from  some  region  outside  the 
bounds  of  the  natural  universe. 


6o  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

II.  A  striking  illustration  of  this  universal 
arrangement  of  God's  universe  is  seen  in  man. 
He  is,  emphatically,  a  sacrament,  and  a  sacrament 
of  a  very  wonderful  order.  He  has  a  material 
body,  an  animal  soul,  an  immaterial  and  immortal 
spirit.*  His  body  is  the  sign  ;  made  of  the  same 
elements  which,  otherwise  combined,  form  the 
brute,  the  plant,  the  rock  ;  within  this  frame  is  a 
principle  of  animal  life,  which  gives  him  his  place 
with  the  other  orders  of  created  beings ;  there  also 
reside  the  principle  of  intelligence,  which  lifts  him 
to  a  higher  plane,  and  the  spark  of  divine  fire 
which  carries  him  almost  up  to  the  place  of  the 
angels,  and  makes  him  an  heir  of  immortal  life. 
What  then  is  this  creature  but  a  sacrament? 
What  is  his  existence  but  a  sacramental  existence? 
Eye,  tongue,  hand,  look,  speech,  are  agents  apt  to 
reveal  what  is  going  on  within.  Who  has  ever  seen 
a  man  ?  W^hat  we  come  in  contact  with  is  an  out- 
ward and  visible  sign  ;  eye  answers  to  eye,  hand 
clasps  hand,  voices  ask  and  answer  questions :  but 
where  or  what  is  the  real,  the  invisible,  being,  who 
thinks  and  speaks  and  is  and  lives? 

III.  In  a  universe  sacramental  throughout  stands 

*  I  Thess.  V.  23. 


THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.        6 1 

man,  himself,  also,  a  sacrament.  He  lives,  more- 
over, a  sacramental  life;  his  existence  is  prolonged 
and  continued  in  a  manner  suited  to  his  state. 
The  elements  supply  what  is  necessary  to  that 
visible  frame  which  contains  the  immaterial  soul 
and  the  immortal  spirit  ;  he  cannot  do  without 
their  help.  His  daily  food  is  a  sacrament ;  it  is  not 
meat  and  drink,  in  their  accidents,  which  support 
our  life,  but  some  principle,  which,  disengaged  by 
the  digestive  process,  goes  to  make  up  the  waste  of 
muscular  tissue  and  nerve  force,  maintains  the  vital 
heat,  insures  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  and,  for  a 
time,  wards  off  death.  Even  the  daily  meal  is,  in 
its  lower  way,  sacramental  ;  man  doth  not  live  by 
bread  alone  ;  but  God,  through  the  use  of  the 
bread,  keeps  man  alive  and  well.  And  so  of  all 
the  actions  of  men  ;  the  same  principle  holds 
good,  whatever  we  think  or  do  or  say.  Speech  is 
a  sacrament  of  thought ;  an  audible  sign  to  the 
hearer,  conveying  what  is  in  the  mind.  The  eye 
has  power  to  express  or  interpret  hope,  fear,  pas- 
sion, love.  Books  and  letters  are  sacraments  ;  the 
alphabet  is  a  sign,  conveying  meaning  to  the 
reader;  business  transactions  would  be  impossible 
without  commercial  and  negotiable  paper ;  fleets 
and   armies  move   on  signals  from  the  chief.     Man 


62  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

thus  leads  a  sacramental  life.  It  is  thus  with  him 
also  on  the  religious  side ;  signs  and  forms  are 
needed  there,  as  everywhere  else  ;  he  cannot  state 
his  faith  without  words,  terms,  and  phrases  proper 
to  that  use;  by  visible  acts  he  holds  communion 
with  the  powers  above  him  ;  prayer  and  praise,  the 
attitude  of  supplication,  the  sign  of  the  cross,  are 
appropriate  to  his  condition  ;  his  soul  is  fed  through 
agencies  adapted  to  his  state.  To  say  that  these 
things  are  unnecessary  and  out  of  place;  that  the 
use  of  signs  and  sacraments,  elsewhere  universal, 
must  cease  when  it  comes  to  our  religious  life,  is  to 
contradict  common  experience,  and  to  make  con- 
fusion where  everything  else  is  plain  and  clear. 

IV.  For  it  is  not  only  a  flat  denial  of  the  faith  of 
the  Church,  but  also  a  contradiction  of  our  common 
sense  to  tell  us  that  we,  on  our  Godward  side,  are 
left,  and  ought  to  be  left,  without  sign,  symbol,  visi- 
ble agency,  or  sensible  means  of  communication  with 
God  and  access  to  Him.  God  is  a  spirit,  without 
body,  parts,  or  passions.  But  it  is  not  thus  that  man 
knows  Him,  nor  could  He  ever  have  been  known 
to  us  as  we  need  to  know  Him,  had  He  remained 
apart  from  us  in  that  eternal  and  incomprehensible 
state.  The  highest  illustration  of  the  Sacramental 
System    is  presented  in    the   story   of  redemption. 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.        63 

God,  to  save  man,  descends  from  heaven  ;  He 
humbles  Himself  to  our  plane  ;  He  adapts  Himself 
to  that  constitution  which  He  has  given  us;  He 
also  is  become  as  one  of  us,  and  wills  to  lead  the 
sacramental  life.  Man  is  immortal  ;  in  knowledge 
of  God  standeth  that  immortality;  that  knowledge 
is  brought  to  him  through  the  material  and  the 
visible.  Some  knowledge  of  God  may  be  had  by 
study  of  nature,  which  is  a  visible  sign,  a  system  of 
signs,  disclosing  the  eternal  power  and  godhead. 
But  to  the  end  that  the  knowledge  might  be  clear 
and  full,  a  more  intelligible  revelation  was  em- 
ployed. That  revelation  came  on  the  same  lines 
on  which  other  knowledge  comes ;  in  a  mode 
according  with  the  analogies  of  the  universe,  our 
own  constitution,  and  our  relations  toward  every- 
thing that  surrounds  us.  A  sacrament  is,  first  of 
all,  a  visible  sign.  Did  God  need  such  signs  to 
make  Himself  known  to  man  ?  Why  need  he  use 
them  ?  He  is  a  spirit,^  and  "  there  is  a  spirit  in 
man."  f  Might  He  not — to  please  the  idealists 
and  transcendentalists — have  limited  Himself  to 
spiritual  communications,  made  directly,  without 
sign  or  medium  of  any  sort,  and  so  disclosed  to  us 

*  St,  John,  iv,  24.  f  Job,  xxxii.  8. 


64  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

whatever  He  pleased  ?  It  is  not  a  question  what 
the  Almighty  could  or  could  not  have  done,  but  of 
what  He  did.*  He  has  not  communicated  with  us 
in  that  abstract  way.  To  have  done  so  would  have 
been  a  violation  of  the  order  of  the  universe,  an  in- 
explicable and  embarrassing  anomaly.  He  used  the 
sign  method  and  the  sign  language.  He  became 
a  Sign  and  a  Sacrament  Himself.  '*  The  Word 
was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us." ""  "  God 
sent  his  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh."  f 
"  God  sent  forth  his  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made 
under  the  law."  %  He  came  in  such  wise  that  men 
could  see  Him  with  the  bodily  eye,  and  touch  and 
handle  Him.  "That  which  was  from  the  begin- 
ning," saith  St.  John,  "  we  have  heard,  we  have 
seen  with  our  eyes,  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our 
hands  have  handled."  §  In  the  mystery  of  His 
holy  Incarnation  God  set  His  seal,  once  more  and 
finally,  to  the  sacramental  principle,  and  gave  it 
universal  application  and  everlasting  permanence. 
God  in  Christ  was  and  is  the  sacrament  of  sacra- 
ments. In  Him  are  the  outward  and  visible  sign 
and  the  inward  part  or  thing  signified.  The  sign  is 
a  humanity,   constituted    complete   in    body,  flesh, 

*  St.  John.  i.  14.  f  Rom.  viii.  3. 

X  Gal.  iv.  4.  §  I  St.  John,  i.  i. 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.        65 

bones,  spirit,  and  soul,  like  ours.  The  inward  part 
or  thing  signified  is  the  divine  nature,  united  to 
the  human  in  the  person  of  the  Son  of  God.  Here 
are  the  sacraiiieiituin  and  the  res.  And  the  inward 
and  spiritual  grace  is  that  power  which,  through 
the  Holy  Ghost,  flows  out  by  many  a  visible  sign 
and  sacrament,  from  Him  to  us.  Virtue  goes  forth 
now,  as  it  did  wdien  the  blind  saw  at  His  touch, 
and  the  lame  walked,  and  the  lepers  were  cleansed 
at  His  spoken  word.  He,  as  "the  image  of  the  in- 
visible God,"  the  first-born  of  the  whole  creation,"" 
is  the  most  perfect  instance  of  a  sacrament  that  the 
imagination  can  conceive  ;  and  in  condescending 
to  take  that  position  in  His  universe  He  tells  us, 
distinctly,  the  truth,  that  the  principle  is  a  univer- 
sal one,  and  runs  up  and  down  and  everywhere, 
throughout  the  entire  compass  of  the  world,  f 

The  argument  from  analogy  and  experience,  to 
which  your  attention  has  now  been  called,  may  be 
supplemented  by  another,  from  correspondence  and 
congruity.  Man,  as  we  know,  has  a  dual  nature  ;  it 
is  therefore  meet  and  fitting  that  the  means  of  his 
enlightenment  and  elevation  should  be  adapted  to 

*  Col.  i.  15. 

\  See   *' Pearson  on  the  Creed,"  Art.  II.,  cited  by  Bishop  Words- 
worth on  Col.  i.  15. 
5 


^  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

his  twofold  condition.  There  is  a  singular  pro- 
priety and  fitness  in  the  Sacramental  System,  when 
we  consider  to  whom  it  is  applied;  indeed,  it  is  not 
readily  conceivable  how  man,  being  in  the  body, 
could  have  been  reached  excepting  through  the 
body  ;  nor  would  a  religion  which  declined  to  take 
note  of  the  body  and  made  no  provision  for  its 
demands  deserve  consideration,  as  a  religion  fit  for 
us  in  our  present  state.  I  shall  not  dwell  on  this 
view  of  the  subject.  Some  have  trusted  to  it,  as 
the  strongest  thing  that  could  be  said  for  our  case. 
In  fact,  it  is  the  least  important  in  the  order  of 
arguments.  It  has  its  place,  but  that  place  is  not 
the  first,  but  the  last.  And  the  same  remark  may 
be  made  of  certain  philological  considerations,  ap- 
parently used  in  recommendation  of  the  system, 
but  really  tending  to  restrict  it.  True  it  is  that  sac- 
raments are  signs,  not  only  to  the  worthy  receiver, 
but  also  to  the  outside  world  ;  as  true  that  they 
have  their  use  as  seals  and  pledges  ;  but  these  mat- 
ters, compared  with  others,  are  of  secondary  impor- 
tance. Such  conceptions  of  the  use  and  value  of 
sacraments  are  derived  from  the  old  classical  mean- 
ing of  the  word.  The  "  sacrauieiituin  "  was,  as  you 
know,  the  soldier's  oath  of  allegiance  and  loyalty; 
a  formula  of  great   importance   in  the   military  ser- 


THE   SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.        6/ 

vice,  announcing  the  intention  and  resolve  to  be 
true  to  the  standard  and  obedient  to  command,  and 
LJ  do,  in  general,  a  soldier's  duty.  Such  use  is  also 
in  sacraments,  regarded  simply  from  the  human 
side.  In  their  administration  and  reception  we 
note  the  ideas  of  promise,  pledge,  and  vow,  made 
by  or  for  us,  confirmed  and  ratified,  and  periodically 
reaffirmed.  In  them  we  find  also,  considering  the 
publicity  of  their  administration,  a  value  as  signs  to 
bystanders,  intimating  purpose,  announcing  inten- 
tion, inviting  sympathy,  and  suggesting  imitation. 
But  these  uses  of  sacraments  are  the  lowest  and 
last  of  all  ;  important  in  their  own  place,  they  yield 
the  precedence  to  higher  considerations  of  the 
wonder-working  power  of  God,  we  think  first ;  later, 
of  the   dispositions  and   concurrence  of   man. 

The  first  division  of  my  work  is  completed. 
Going  back  to  the  origin  of  things,  we  have  sought 
a  foundation  for  the  Sacramental  System  in  the 
eternal  counsels  and  plans  of  the  Almighty,  in  the 
relation  of  the  creature  to  the  Creator,  through 
the  foreseen  Incarnation  of  the  eternal  Son  of 
God.  We  have  found  the  system  to  be  in  accord 
with  the  constitution  of  the  visible  universe,  and  the 
nature  of  mankind  ;  we  have  discovered  its  most 
beautiful  illustration  in  the  union  of  the   lower  and 


68 


LENTEN  LECTURES. 


the  higher  natures  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  in  com- 
plete accord  with  us,  in  our  present  state ;  it  is 
necessarily  and  inevitably  in  accord  with  us ;  so 
that  a  religion  which  was  not  sacramental  could 
not  have  met  the  wants  of  mankind.  We  find  it, 
moreover,  to  be  of  practical  value,  in  identifying 
our  place  among  our  fellow-beings,  as  confessors  of 
one  holy  faith,  and  in  stamping  us  with  a  peculiar 
impress,  known  and  read  of  all  men.  We  realize 
the  fact  that  it  establishes  and  maintains  a  connec- 
tion between  us  and  the  supernatural  order;  as 
giving  us  grace,  and  assuring  us  that  it  has  been 
conferred;  as  moving  us,  under  a  sense  of  awful 
obligation,  to  the  consecration  of  heart,  mind,  and 
will  to  the  service  of  God.  It  exercises  a  strong 
influence  so  long  as  conscience  lives  and  acts,  con- 
straining us  to  the  punctual  discharge  of  assumed 
obligations,  and  maintaining  that  sense  of  depend- 
ence on  the  higher  powers  which  is  the  character- 
istic of  tlie  Catholic  mind.  The  whole  field  of 
human  need  and  hutnan  experience  seems  to  be 
covered,  where  the  system  holds  sway.  The  be- 
liever, in  his  reverent  acceptance  of  sacramental 
gifts  from  God,  is,  though  he  never  may  have  real- 
ized it,  in  touch  with  powers  and  forces  which 
broaden   outward    and   upward,   till   the  universe  is 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.         69 

swept  by  them  ;  and  this  fleeting  hour,  with  its 
issues  of  life  and  death  to  the  souls  of  men,  is,  in 
sequence,  one  with  the  beginning  wherein  all  things 
were  made.  No  doubt  there  are  forces  at  work 
among  us  with  which  we  are  not  yet  acquainted. 
It  has  been  surmised,  by  some  reverent,  though 
perhaps  enthusiastic  souls,  that  the  time  may  come 
when  we  shall  discover  a  particular  force,  long 
active  in  the  world,  which  has  been  applied  to  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  the  redeemed  in  Christ,  through 
the  sacraments  of  the  Church,  precisely  as  other 
forces,  well  known  to  us  to-day,  are  working  in  the 
physical  order. 

Such  is  the  Sacramental  System,  in  the  broadest 
light  under  which  it  can  be  presented  to  the  mind. 
It  were  vain  to  hope,  at  this  day,  for  a  general  ac- 
ceptance of  the  facts  concerning  this  grace  of  God  ; 
'*  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him  : 
neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are  spirit- 
ually discerned."  ^  The  name  of  sacraments  may 
be  retained,  and  their  use  may  continue,  where  the 
life  has  gone  out  of  them  ;  and  the  life  does  so  go 
out,  as  soon  as  the  outward  and  inward  are  divided, 

*  I  Cor.  ii.  14. 


"JO  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

for  then  the  outward  remains  a  dead  and  lifeless 
sign,  while  the  inward  evaporates  into  a  volatile 
vapor  of  sentiment.  The  principle  of  rationalism, 
applied  to  these  mystical  and  beneficent  rites, 
leaves  them  to  us  as  mere  memorials,  emblems  of 
absent  things,  or  occasions  on  which  we  are  to  per- 
form something  for  our  own  advantage,  instead  of 
receiving  the  "  unspeakable  gift  "  of  God.  In  the 
narrowness  of  sectarian  religious  temper  and  the 
poverty  and  timidity  of  modern  thought,  men  have 
lost  hold  of  what  they  ought  to  have  held  fast 
forever.  Some  reject  the  sacraments  altogether ; 
some  retain  them  under  a  protest  that  they  mean 
nothing  and  confer  nothing;  in  submitting  to  bap- 
tism or  receiving  the  Lord's  Supper  they  have  no 
thought  beyond  doing  something  for  their  neigh- 
bors to  look  at,  or  signifying  the  vitality  of  what 
they  style  their  faith,  or  announcing  their  per- 
sonal religious  convictions,  or  stirring  up  a  tender 
recollection.  The  supernatural  element  dies  out  of 
these  degraded  rites;  "ordinances"  only  are  left, 
which  neither  convey  grace  nor  link  man  and  God 
together;  which  are  commended  solely  on  grounds 
of  convenience  or  expediency  ;  which  serve  a  utili- 
tarian purpose  as  badges  of  respectability,  but  in 
themselves  are  nothing.     It  is  a  striking  feature  of 


THE    SACRAMENTAL   SYSTEM  APPLIED.         71 

the  times  in  which  we  Hve,  that  the  broadest  and 
deepest  views  in  theology  are  popularly  considered 
to  be  narrow,  while  the  narrowest  are  denominated 
broad.  So,  in  the  days  of  Isaiah,  men  called  evil 
good  and  good  evil  ;  they  put  darkness  for  light 
and  light  for  darkness,  bitter  for  sweet  and  sweet 
for  bitter."^  The  men  who  hold  the  most  advanced 
sacramental  doctrine  are  reviled  as  narrow  and  ex- 
clusive. It  does  not  occur  to  any  to  ask  what  these 
so-called  narrow  men  believe,  how  far  the  applica- 
tion of  their  faith  extends,  or  how  exceedingly  nar- 
row in  contrast  are  the  ideas  of  their  opponents. 
For,  really,  the  man  who  denies  the  Sacramental 
System,  who  says  of  baptism  that  it  is  a  mere  out- 
ward washing,  or  a  rite  of  initiation,  and  confers 
no  inward  and  spiritual  grace,  and  that  the  Lord's 
Supper,  if  it  were  intended  to  continue  in  use,  is, 
after  all,  no  more  than  a  memorial  meal,  and  has  no 
power  but  that  of  affecting  our  feelings  and  deep- 
ening our  sympathies  with  Him  who  so  ate  before 
He  died  ;  this  man  is  not  really  broad  at  all,  but 
the  narrowest  of  the  narrow,  though  he  should  call 
all  the  world  to  come  and  sit  down  to  meat  with 
him,  and  accept  everybody  to  his  fellowship  without 

*  Isa.  V.  20. 


72  LEX  TEX  LEC'/TRES. 

regard  to  initiatory  lavation  or  particular  statement 
of  faith.  On  the  other  hand,  that  man  who  intel- 
Hgently  holds  the  belief  of  the  Church  and  the 
fathers  on  these  great  themes  is  the  real  broad 
churchman,  though  he  maintain,  as  he  ought  to, 
that  mysteries  so  sacred  as  these  should  not  be 
open  to  any  rash  foot,  but  must  be  defended  from 
profanation  and  reserved  for  those  who  have  the 
signed  and  certified  pass  and  order  to  admit  them 
to  the  presence  of  the  King. 

A  few  words  in  conclusion  of  this  brancli  of  my 
subject.  The  destruction  of  the  Sacramental  Sys- 
tem, as  a  wonder-working  power  of  the  world  to 
come,  is  at  once  effected  by  separating  the  sign 
from  the  thing  signified  and  leaving  a  bare  sign  and 
nothing  more.  Happily  we,  as  a  Church,  are  pro- 
tected from  that  error  by  the  clearest  declarations 
in  our  standards. 

"  Sacraments  ordained  of  Christ,"  says  Article  XXV.,  "be 
not  only  badges  or  tokens  of  Christian  men's  profession,  but 
rather  they  be  certain  sure  witnesses  and  effectual  signs  of 
grace  and  God's  good  will  towards  us,  by  the  which  He 
doth  work  invisibly  in  us,  and  doth  not  only  quicken  but 
strengthen  and  confirm  our  faith  in  Him." 

And  so  of  Holy  Baptism,  it  is  declared  in  Article 
XXVII.  to  be 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.         73 

*' not  only  a  sign  of  profession  and  marl<  of  difference, 
whereby  Ciiristian  men  are  discerned  from  others  that  be  not 
christened,  but  it  is  also  a  sign  of  regeneration  or  new  birth, 
whereby,  as  by  an  instrument,  they  that  receive  baptism 
rightly  are  grafted  into  the  Church  " 

And  elsewhere  we  read  : 

"Thus  much  we  must  be  sure  to  hold,  that  in  the  Supper  of 
the  Lord  tliere  is  no  vain  ceremony,  no  bare  sign,  no  untrue 
figure  of  a  thing  absent,  Bu^,  as  the  Scripture  saith,  t/ie 
table  of  the  Lord,  the  bread  and  cup  of  the  Lord,  the  viem- 
ory  of  Christ,  the  annunciation  of  His  death,  yea,  the  com- 
immion  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  the  Lord,  in  a  marvellous 
incorporation,  luJiich  by  the  operatioji  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
[the  very  bond  of  our  co7ijunctio7i  with  Christ)  is  through 
faith  wrought  in  the  souls  of  the  faithful,  whereby  7iot  only 
their  souls  live  to  eternal  life,  but  they  surely  trust  to  win 
to  their  bodies  a  resurrection  to  immortality." "^ 

The  Zwinglian  theory,  that  sacraments  are  noth- 
ing but  memorials  of  Christ,  and  badges  of  a  Chris- 
tian profession,  is  that  one  which  can  by  no  possi- 
ble jugglery  with  the  English  tongue  be  reconciled 
with  the  formularies  of  our  Church  ;  the  principle 
is  contradicted  by  the  entire  cast  of  our  sacra- 
mental offices,  and  by  every  word  in  them  which 
can  convey  an  idea  of  their  meaning.     It  is  well  for 

*  "An  Homily  of  the  Worthy  Receiving  and  Reverent  Esteeming 
of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ."     Part  I. 


^/ 


74  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

US  that  this  Is  the  case;  for  the  Zvvinglian  theory 
is  simply  rationaUsm  in  a  religious  dress  ;  and  it 
should  be  held  as  a  matter  of  obligation  and  a  point 
of  honor  to  maintain  that  we,  as  a  Church,  have 
neither  art  nor  part  therein.  Nor  need  it  cause 
anxiety,  however  painful  the  discovery,  to  find  men 
among  us  infected  with  the  views  of  the  Swiss  re- 
former, and  even  carried  so  far  by  admiration  for 
him  as  to  make  their  compliments  to  him  as  '*  the 
clear-headed  and  intrepid  Zwingle."  After  all,  such 
persons  deceive  no  one  but  themselves;  not  only 
within  the  Church,  but  outside  it  also,  her  position 
is  understood  ;  and  I  take  occasion  to  acknowledge 
our  obligation  to  a  learned  and  eminent  Presby- 
terian divine,  lately  deceased,  the  Rev.  Henry_./1.  O. 
Van  Dyke,  for  the  good  service  rendered  us  in  his  / 
free  dissection  of  a  much-admired  dignitary  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  Dean  Stanley,  whose  views  about 
the  Holy  Communion  he  describes  as  "  the  ripest 
and  bitterest  fruit  of  rationalizing  about  the  Lord's 
Supper."  ''^     It  is  perfectly  true,  as   Dr.  Van    Dyke 


*  "  The   Church  ;    her    Ministry    and    Sacraments."      The    Stone 

Lectures  at  Princeton,  1890,  by  Henry  ^.  Van  Dyke.  D.D.,  Pastor  of 

i        the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Brooklyn  (A.  D.  F.  Randolph, 

New  York),  pp.  175,  176.     The  whole  passage  here  referred  to  will 

be  found  in  the  Appended  Notes,  No.  II. 


THE    SACRAMENTAL    SYSTEM  APPLIED.         75 

goes  on  to  say,  that  the  sign  theory  of  the  sacra- 
ments is  "  the  symbol  of  rationahsm  in  its  bald  and 
naked  shape."  That  theory,  however  strongly  it 
may  commend  itself  to  individuals  here  and  there, 
is  foreign  to  the  standards  of  the  Church.  It  flour- 
ishes as  faith  in  the  supernatural  grows  weak ;  it 
dies  when  that  faith  revives.  The  voice  of  Catholic 
Christendom,  as  duly  and  clearly  heard  in  our 
Offices  and  Articles,  reproves  and  rebukes  it  ;  and 
of  late,  our  hold  on  the  higher  truth  and  the  deeper 
mysteries  has  strengthened,  under  observation  of 
the  result  of  giving  away  the  treasure  committed 
to  our  keeping.  The  words  of  Bishop  Harold 
Browne  may  be  adopted  as  expressive  of  the  judg- 
ment and  belief  of  the  Church  from  which  we  have 
our  Orders,  that  "■  the  sacraments  of  the  Gospel  not 
only  promise  Christ,  but  to  those  who  receive  them 
in  faith  they  are  means  whereby  God  gives  Christ 
to  the  soul."  "^ 

*  "  Exposition  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,"  Vol.  II.  p.  382. 


III. 

THE    LESSER   SACRAMENTS. 


LECTURE    III. 

THE   LESSER   SACRAMENTS. 

It  may  be  said,  by  way  of  general  remark  upon 
the  Sacramental  System,  that,  with  a  widening 
appreciation  of  the  nature  of  that  system  and  its 
application  to  us  in  our  life,  there  will  come  a  dis-  / 
inclination  to  restrict  the  number  of  these  means  i 
of  grace.  On  that  point  differences  are  found 
throughout  the  Church.  The  Latins  fix  the  num- 
ber of  the  sacraments  to  seven  ;  the  Eastern 
churches  follow  them  in  that  particular.  The  num- 
ber was  not  defined  in  the  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg, but  it  enumerates  three  as  "  having  the  com- 
mand of  God  and  the  promise  of  the  grace  of  the 
New  Testament."  Luther  admitted  three — Bap- 
tism, the  Lord's  Supper,  Penitence.  Cranmer,  in 
his  Catechism,  says  : 

"Our  Lorcle  Jesus  Christ  hath  instituted  and  annexed  to  the 
gospel  thre  sacraments  or  holy  scales,  of  his  covenant  and 
lege  made  with  us.  And  by  these  thre,  God's  ministers  do 
worke  with  us  in  the  name  and  place  of  God  (yea,  God  him- 
selfe  worketh  with  us)  to  confirme  us  in  our  faith,  and  to 
asserten  us  that  we  are  the  lyvely   membres   of  God's  trew 


80  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

churche  and  the  chosen  people  of  God,  to  whome  the  gospell 
is  sent,  and  that  all  those  things  belong  to  us  wherof  the 
promises  of  the  gospel  make  mention.  The  first  of  these 
sacramentes  is  baptisme,  by  the  which  we  be  borne  again  to 
a  new  and  heavenly  lyfe,  and  be  receaued  into  God's  churche 
and  congregation  which  is  the  foundation  and  piller  of  the 
treuth.  The  seconde  is  absolution  or  the  authoritie  of  the 
Kayes,  whereby  we  be  absolued  from  such  synnes  as  we  be 
fallen  into  after  our  baptisme.  The  thirde  sacramente  is  the 
communion  or  the  Lordes  Supper,  by  the  whiche  we  be  fedde 
and  nourished  and  fortified  in  the  faith  of  the  ghospell  and 
knowlege  of  Christ,  that  by  this  fode  we  maye  growe  more 
and  more  in  newnes  of  lyfe,  so  that  we  maye  be  no  longer 
children,  but  maye  waxe  perfecte  men,  and  ful  growen  in 
Christ." 

The  mind  of  the  AngHcan  Church  on  this  point 
is  to  be  gathered  from  Article  XXV.,  the  Cate- 
chism, and  the  Book  of  Homihes.  In  a  guarded 
manner,  and  with  some  explanatory  comment,  she 
limits  the  number  of  the  sacraments  to  two.  She 
does  not  say  that  there  are  two  sacraments  and 
^'^3  fi'O  more ;  but  that  there  are  two  only  which  are, 
to  mankind  in  general,  necessary  to  salvation. 

Precise  statements  such  as  these,  with  limitation 
of  the  number  of  God's  sacraments,  are  obviously 
the  result  of  constraining  causes  ;  and  chiefly  due  to 
the   tendency  to   systematize  in  theology,  and   to  a 


THE   LESSER   SACRAMENTS.  8l 

reaction  against  false  or  exaggerated  teaching.  As 
the  Church  was  compelled,  by  the  inroads  of  heresy, 
to  mark  with  greater  exactness  of  definition  the 
lines  of  the  Christian  faith,  so  in  the  matter  of  the 
sacraments  she  has  been  forced  by  circumstances  to 
make  artificial  limitations,  and  to  narrow  the  field 
of  view.  What  breadth,  what  grandeur,  in  the  first 
conception  of  the  Sacramental  System  !  Christ  a 
sacrament  ;  man  a  sacrament,  leading,  in  body  and 
soul,  a  sacramental  life  ;  the  earth,  in  its  several 
kingdoms,  and  the  vast  outlying  universe,  all  hav- 
ing their  sacramental  cast  and  character;  religion 
sacramental  throughout  ;  sacraments  everywhere,  1)1 
and  hardly  anything  which  is  not  sacramental !  li 
Thus  do  the  old  fathers  and  doctors  of  the  Church 
appear  to  have  regarded  the  subject,  in  the  fresh- 
ness and  enthusiasm  of  early  days,  ere  yet  exigen- 
cies had  arisen  which  called  for  definitions  and 
restrictions.  Anything  in  or  under  which  divine 
power  was  veiled,  was,  in  their  eyes,  a  sacrament  ; 
even  the  implements  used  in  working  great  won- 
ders were  styled  by  that  name.  Speaking  of  this 
wide  application  of  the  term,  Jeremy  Taylor  says  : 

"  When  God  appointed  the  bow  in  the  clouds  to  be  a  sacra- 
ment and  the  memorial  of  a  promise,  he  made  it  our  comfort, 
but  his  own  sign  :   '  I  will   remember   my  covenant  between 


82  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

me  and  the  earth,  and  the  waters  shall  no  more  be  a  flood 
to  destroy  all  flesh.'  When  Elisha  threw  the  wood  into  the 
waters  of  Jordan — 'sacramentum  ligni,  the  sacrament  of 
the  wood,'  Tertullian  calls  it — that  chip  made  the  iron  swim, 
not  by  any  natural  or  infused  power,  but  that  was  the  sac- 
rament or  sign  at  which  the  divine  power  then  passed  on  to 
effect  an  emanation.  When  Elisha  talked  with  the  King  of 
Israel  about  the  war  with  Syria,  he  commanded  him  to  smite 
upon  the  ground,  and  he  smote  thrice  and  stayed.  Tliis  was 
•sacramentum  victorije,'  the  sacrament  of  his  future  victory. 
The  sacraments  are  God's  signs,  the  opportunities  of  grace 
and  action."  * 

To  return  to  a  consideration  of  the  mind  of  our 
Church  as  to  the  number  of  the  sacraments.  On 
that  point  her  teaching  is  wise  and  clear.  Making 
it  a  condition  that  a  sacrament,  to  take  the  highest 
grade,  should  have  been  "  ordained  by  Christ  Him- 
self," she  finds  two  only  of  that  class,  Baptism  and 
the  Supper  of  the  Lord.-f-  These  tower  preemi- 
nently above  all  other  rites  to  which  the  name  of 
sacrament  has  been  or  may  be  applied  ;  these,  and 
these  only,  were  instituted  by  our  blessed  Lord 
Himself  with  reference  to  the  wants  of  mankind  in 
general,   without    distinction   of  sex,   race,    circum- 

*  "  Worthy  Communicant,"  ch.  i.  sect.  iii. 

f  See  "Bishop  Forbes  on  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,"  Vol.  II.  p. 
445. 


THE   LESSER    SACRAMENTS,  83 

stance,  or  vocation.     But  she  does  not  deny  that  in 

addition  to  these  there  are  sacraments  of  an  inferior 

grade.     The  sacrament  of  Matrimony  is  mentioned    AOstii^x^^ 

by  that  name  in    one   of    the  Homihes,   as  ''that 

which  knitteth   man   and  wife  in   perpetual  love;" 

while  of  Absolution  and   others  it  is  acknowledged    Qx^i^^CmXJ^ 

that   they  are  also  sacraments,  in  some  sense. 

"  Absolution  is  no  such  sacrament  as  Baptism  and  the 
Communion  are  ...  it  lacks  the  promise  of  remission  of 
sin,  as  all  other  sacraments  besides  the  two  above-named  do 
they  are  not  sacraments,  in  the  same  signification 
that  the  two  forenamed  sacraments  are."  "  Although  there 
are  retained,  by  the  order  of  the  Church  of  England,  besides 
these  two,  certain  other  rites  and  ceremonies  about  the  insti- 
tution of  ministers  in  the  Church,  matrimony,  confirmation 
of  children,  and  the  visitation  of  the  sick,  yet  no_man  ought 
to  take  these  for  sacraments,  in  such  signification  and  mean- 
ing as  the  sacrament  of  Baptism  and  the   Lord's  Supper  are." 

This  language  clearly  indicates  the  position  of 
the  Anglican  communion  on  the  subject.  There  are 
two  great  sacraments  of  the  Gospel,  ordained  by 
the  Lord  Himself,  and  generally  necessary  to  salva- 
tion. But,  in  a  general  acceptation,  the  name  of  / 
a  sacrament  maybe  attributed  to  aj2}^hing  where- /K^^  ^a^^^^ 
by  an    holy  thing  is  signjfied ;  and   thereTore  it  is  J 

correctly  applied  to   those   other  rites  "  commonly 


84  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

called  sacraments,  so  far  as  they  are  ministered  in 
true  Gospel  wise,  and  do  not  imply  a  corrupt 
following  of  the  apostles."  "They  have  not  like 
nature  of  sacraments  with  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper,"  says  the  Article  ;  but  that  they  have  no 
sacramental  nature  or  character  whatever  is  not 
affirmed  in  our  standards.  In  fact,  there  is  good 
reason  for  insisting  on  the  sacramental  character 
and  quality  of  the  ordinances  now  referred  to,  and 
their  affinity  to  the  great  "sacraments  of  the  Gos- 
pel ;  "  for  they  aid  to  keep  before  us,  with  reference 
to  some  of  the  most  important  actions  of  life,  and 
particularly  with  reference  to  the  sacred  ministry, 
the  alliance  between  the  natural  and  supernatural, 
and  to  stamp  a  special  seal  of  holiness  and  religious 
obligation  on  our  relations  to  the  Church  and  to 
each  other.  To  deny  the  sacramental  quality  in 
these  ordinances  is  to  do  what  can  be  done  to  take 
|God  out  of  them,  and  relegate  them  to  the  line  of 
ecular  transactions  ;  to  affirm  that  quality  in  them 
is  to  declare  our  adhesion  to  a  Supernatural  Re- 
ligion. 

Take  Confirmation,  for  instance.  It  cannot  be 
considered  as  barred  out  by  the  language  of  Article 
XXV,  It  is  retained  among  us  on  the  very  ground 
that  it  is  "  a  following  of  the  apostles  ;  "   surely  not 


THE  LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  85 

a  "  corrupt  "  one.  Deny  to  it  the  sacramental 
character,  and  what  is  left  ?  A  ceremony  in  which 
the  person  confirmed  is  the  principal,  if  not  the 
only  personal,  actor.  He  comes  to  confirmation 
merely  in  order  to  assume  obligations  previously 
incurred  by  others  in  his  name  ;  it  is  now  his  busi- 
ness to  justify  the  act  of  his  friends  and  relieve 
them  of  a  responsibility  ;  he  comes  forward  under 
a  sense  of  duty  to  take  his  place  in  the  Church  and 
make  his  oath  as  a  soldier  of  Christ.  This  is  all 
true  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  to  stop  with  this  is  to 
keep  on  our  side  of  the  line  and  decline  to  cross  it 
and  get  on  God's  side.  There  is  no  mystery  in 
such  steps  as  these  ;  no  trace  of  supernatural  work- 
ings ;  the  action,  so  far,  is  simply  that  of  the  man 
admitting  a  duty  and  discharging  an  obligation.  A 
rite  so  commonplace  as  this  would  afford  nothing 
for  theological  analysis,  and  the  failure  to  perceive 
the  sacramental  quality  in  Confirmation  is  the  nec- 
essary consequence  of  exclusive  attention  to  the 
part  performed  by  the  candidate.  A  higher  field  is 
entered  the  instant  we  turn  our  eyes  above.  God 
the  Holy  Ghost  :  the  moment  He  appears,  the 
scene  and  the  conception  change,  and  we  feel  the 
throbbing  of  the  sacramental  force^  It  is  He  that 
confirms;  by  Him  the  sevenfold  gifts  are  exhibited 


86  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

and  imparted  ;  from  Him  a  special  benediction  and 
power  descend  upon  the  young  soldier  of  Christ. 
And  these  constitute  a  gracious  gift  conferred  by 
instrumental  means,  and  in  the  act  of  the  laying-on 
of  hands  by  the  chief  pastor  of  the  Church  ;  so  that 
from  the  sphere  above,  whence  at  first  came  spirit- 
ual life,  we  receive  a  renewal  of  the  vital  gift  at  a 
special  point  of  danger.  Where  these  things  are 
felt  and  realized — and  we  believe  that  they  are 
widely  felt  and  realized  among  us,  and  more  and 
more  appreciated  every  day — the  sacramental  char- 
acter of  the  ordinance  can  hardly  be  denied.  Here, 
surely,  is  an  outward  and  visible  sign,  most  tender 
and  impressive,  in  the  imposition  of  pastoral  hands 
on  the  head  of  tJie  child  ;  here  also  is  an  inward 
and  spiritual  grace,  in  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
and  though  we  miss  the  special  mark  in  the  institu- 
tion of  this  rite  by  Christ  Himself,  yet  it  comes 
so  near  it  that  it  could  hardly  be  nearer.  This  is 
no  "  corrupt  following  of  the  apostles,"  but  a  true 
and  sincere  following  of  them,  '*  after  whose  ex- 
ample "  the  thing  is  done  ;  and  whatever  the  holy 
apostles  did  we  must  believe  to  have  been  done,  if 
not  on  the  verbal  suggestion  of  the  Master,  at  least 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  sent  to  them 
from  the  Father.     We  do  not  hesitate  to  call  Con- 


THE  LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  8/ 

firmation  a  minor  sacrament,  a  sacrament  of  a  lower 
class  ;  not  such  as  the  higher  two,  but  precious  as  a 
means  of  grace,  apt  to  that  perilous  age  when,  as 
the  world  exhibits  its  first  strong  allurements,  the 
child  of  the  Church  is  strengthened  with  might  by 
the  Spirit  in  the  inner  man,  confirmed  in  all  holy 
desires  and  fortified  with  weapons  by  which  to 
withstand  the  temptations  of  the  world,  the  flesh, 
and  the  devil.  Finally,  the  significance  of  this  rite 
is  shown  in  the  fact  that  it  is  the  door  of  entrance 
to  the  altar;  "there  shall  none  be  admitted  to  the 
Holy  Communion  until  such  time  as  he  be  con- 
firmed, or  be  ready  and  desirous  to  be  confirmed."* 

So  with  Holy  Matrimony.  In  the  case  of  that  1/^', 
sacred  rite  we  are  happily  able  to  point  to  the 
authorized  use  of  the  title ;  it  is  spoken  of  as  ''  a 
sacrament  which  knitteth  man  and  wife  in  perpetual 
love."  f  Holy  Matrimony  is  "  an  honorable  estate, 
instituted  of  God  in  the  time  of  man's  innocency, 
signifying  unto  us  the  mystical  union  between 
Christ  and  His  Church,  which  holy  estate  Christ 
adorned  and  beautified  with  His  presence  and  first 
miracle  that  He  wrought  in  Cana  of  Galilee." 
How  appropriately,  how  rightly,  is  it  called  among 

*  Rubric  at  the  end  of  the  Order  of  Confirmation, 
f  Book  of  Homilies. 


88  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

US,  **  the  Sacrament  of  Matrimony"  !  What  can  be 
gained  by  denying  its  sacramental  character?  How 
great  is  our  advantage  in  being  able  to  face  the 
horrible  spectre  of  divorce  with  a  strong  affirmation, 
supported  by  our  formularies,  that  in  Holy  Matri- 
inony,  when  rightly  solemnized  in  the  Church,  God 
gives  the  man  and  the  woman  divine' and  supernat- 
ural grace  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  be  faithful 
till  parted  by  death  !  Marriage,  divested  of  its  sac- 
ramental character,  becomes  substantially  a  secular 
ordinance  ;  there  is  no  sacred  mystery  about  it,  and 
no  grace;  it  might  be  regarded  as  but  a  business 
partnership,  dissoluble  by  the  contractors  whenever 
they  think  it  desirable  to  separate  and  form  new 
alliances  ;  an  affair  wholly  within  the  purview  of 
the  civil  magistrate,  and  to  which  the  offices  of  the 
Church  confer  merely  a  religious  and  edifying  flavor. 
The  act  of  joining  a  man  and  woman  together  as 
husband  and  wife  is  essentially  a  civil  ceremony; 
no  special  form  is  necessary  ;  the  union  is  a  social 
compact .  perpetual  obligations  are  not  incurred  ; 
for  any  one  of  a  dozen  causes  the  contract  may 
be  broken  and  the  union  dissolved.  These  are  the 
results  of  the  application  of  rationalistic  principles 
to  that  relation  on  which  depends  the  purity  of 
society  and  tlie  permanence  of  the  state  ;  and  from 


THE  LESSER   SACRAMENTS.  89 

such  bald  rationalism,  under  whose  influence  the 
cancer  of  divorce  eats  ever  more  deeply  into  our 
social  system,  we  appeal  to  the  principles  of  the 
Church  and  the  sanctions  of  a  sacramental  religion. 
Holy  Matrimony  is  the  marriage  in  the  Church ; 
that  adjective  is  the  characteristic  note  of  sacra- 
mentals.  It  is  a  mystery,  a  sacred  thing,  the  intro- 
duction into  '*  a  holy  estate."  It  symbolizes  the 
union  of  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God  with  the  Church 
which  is  His  Body.  It  makes  a  man  and  a  woman 
one  flesh  by  a  bond  which  cannot  be  broken  so  long 
as  they  live.  For  the  permanence  of  the  union  they 
are  not  to  rely  solely  on  natural  powers  ;  so  unstable, 
so  frail,  so  careless  of  duty  and  obligation,  are  the 
fallen  beings  whom  God  hath  joined  together,  that 
supernatural  grace  is  needed  to  enable  them  to 
live  and  love,  in  truth  and  loyalty  to  each  other, 
till  death.  The  trials  and  temptations  which  in- 
evitably come  upon  the  married  are  many  and 
great  ;  domestic  peace  is  often  endangered,  and  the 
union  imperilled;  wherefore  this  relation  must  be 
entered  into  ''soberly,  advisedly,  discreetly,  rever- 
ently and  in  the  fear  of  God."  And  to  those  who 
thus  enterprise  it,  there  comes  a  special  gift  from 
above,  enabling  them  "  surely  to  perform  and  keep 
the  vow  and  covenant  betwixt  them  made."     There 


90  LENTKN  LECTURES. 

is  nothing  secular  and  civil  in  these  ideas;  they  are 
sacramental  throughout  ;  in  this  holy  office  there 
are  prayers  and  benedictions,  outward  and  visible 
signs  and  forms,  the  giving  and  receiving  a  ring, 
the  joining  hands,  the  words  in  betrothal,  the 
solemn  vow  and  plight  of  troth.  Who  shall  say,  in 
view  of  the  statistics  of  marriage  and  divorce 
among  us,  that  one  word  can  be  spared,  that  one 
expression  is  unnecessary,  which  helps  to  realize 
the  sanctity,  the  divine  character,  the  sacramental 
cast,  of  the  relation  between  man  and  wife? 
^yfs^j-Oi:::?  And  so,  once  more,  of  Holy  Order.  The  title 
implies  the  sacramental  character.  We  speak  of 
Holy  Baptism,  Holy  Communion,  and  Holy  Matri- 
mony; so,  likewise,  of  Holy  Order.  That  prefix 
"holy"  determines  the  place  of  the  ordinance  in  the 
Church  ;  it  marks  the  distinction  between  a  profes- 
sion which  any  man  may  undertake  of  his  own 
motion,  or  to  which  one  can  induct  another  at 
will,  and  a  sacred  office  exercised  among  us  by 
persons  duly  set  apart  by  apostolic  authority.  The 
question  of  the  ministry  is  the  burning  question 
of  the  hour ;  whether  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a 
human  calling  or  as  a  divine  institution  ;  whether 
all  ministries  are  equal  in  validity.  On  this  point 
there  would  have  been  less  contention  among  us  if 


THE   LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  9 1 

the  sacramental  idea  had  been  more  distinctly  kept 
before  the  people;  if  they  had  been  reminded,  in 
language  not  to  be  misunderstood  by  the  most  ob- 
tuse, that  a  special  grace  and  power  accompany  the 
laying-on  of  hands  in  Ordination.  In  that  solemn 
and  impressive  function  we  find  outward  and  visible 
signs,  in  the  imposition  of  pastoral  hands,  the  de- 
livery of  sacred  books,  the  recital  of  words  denot- 
ing the  transmission  of  official  authority;  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  also  imparted,  to  make  the 
deacon,  priest,  or  bishop  apt  and  meet  for  his  voca- 
tion. The  men  thus  set  apart,  according  to  the 
ancient  form  and  rules  of  the  historic  Church,  by 
persons  who,  since  the  apostles'  time,  have  been 
thus  handing  down  a  sacred  office,  must  be  thence- 
forth distinguished,  not  only  from  their  brethren  in 
secular  life,  but  also  from  all  ministries  pretending  to 
no  sacramental  or  superhuman  character.  Experi- 
ence has  demonstrated  the  importance  of  insisting 
on  the  true  import  of  the  Ordinal,  in  order  to  fore- 
stall the  efforts  strenuously  made,  to  divest  the 
Christian  Ministry  of  its  sacred  quality,  to  lower 
the  Clergy  to  the  level  of  mere  presidents  of  assem- 
blies or  mouthpieces  of  congregations,  and  to  rep- 
resent them  as  only  men  like  other  men,  depending 
on  their  native  powers  and  good  intentions,  but  dis- 


92  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

claiming  the  possession  of  any  higher  qualification 
for  the  work  of  ministry  to  their  brethren. 
h/y±f{jf^j(^^  Another  means  of  grace  demands  our  considera- 
tion. It  is  variously  known  as  Absolution,  Peni- 
tence, and  Penance.  The  fact  has  been  already 
noted  that,  in  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  three 
sacraments    are    enumerated.    Baptism,   the    Lord's 

I  Supper,  and  Penitence.  Provision  of  some  sort, 
for  the   removal  of  post-baptismal  sin,  has   always 

'  been  made  in  the  Church.  The  subject  claims  our 
reverent  attention,  and  particularly  at  this  point, 
because  the  provision  referred  to  has  always  been, 
and  must  as  a  matter  of  course  be,  sacramental. 
"Almighty  God,"  we  are  told,  *' hath  given  power 

■  and  autliority  to  His  ministers  to  declare  and  pro- 
nounce to  His  people,  being  penitent,  the  absolu- 
tion and  remission  of  their  sins."  Whenever  and 
wherever  they  exercise  that  power,  they  minister 
along  sacramental  lines;  it  is  an  office  which  no 
man  under  the  grade  of  the  priesthood  can  perform. 
The  people  may  indeed  confess  their  sins  one  to 
another,  after  the  counsel  of  St.  James;  friend 
to  friend,  husband  to  wife,  wife  to  husband,  child  to 
parent  ;  they  may  speak  to  one  another,  confidently 
and  comfortingly,  of  the  loving  kindness  of  the 
Lord  ;  but  if  any  desire — and  no  wish  is  more  natural 


THE   LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  93 

or  more  frequently  expressed — a  formal  and  of^cial 
declaration  that  his  own  particular  sins  are  for- 
given, he  must  go  to  some  one  duly  commissioned 
to  give  him  satisfactory  assurance  on  that  point. 
He  may  seek  it  in  the  Church  ;  the  absolution  in 
the  Matin  or  Evening  of^ce,  the  more  solemn  abso- 
lution in  the  of^ce  of  the  Holy  Communion,  are 
true  absolutions,  applicable  and  effectual  to  any 
burdened  soul  which,  by  faith,  appropriates  the  pre- 
cious gift.  Or  else  he  may  seek  it  in  private,  where  ' 
a  minute  confession  can  be  made,  and  the  particu- 
lars of  soul  sickness  disclosed  to  the  physician  ; 
and,  in  that  way,  to  many,  the  word  of  absolution 
seems  to  come  home  more  closely  and  with  a  more 
direct  and  personal  application.  But  wherever  or 
whenever  this  power  is  exercised  it  appears  impos- 
sible to  divest  it  of  a  sacramental  force,  because  a 
gracious  gift  is  there,  well  won  by  the  sacrifice  to 
pride  by  w^hich  it  is  purchased.  Nay,  let  us  observe, 
moreover,  how  close  is  the  connection  between  the 
earthly  priest  in  absolution,  and  the  Great  High 
Priest  above,  and  how  distinctly  this  office  bespeaks 
an  extension  of  the  Incarnation.  Let  us  reverently 
consider  the  healing  of  the  sick  of  the  palsy,  related 
in  St.  Mark,  ii.  3-12.  God  can  forgive  sins.  The 
scribes  knew  that ;  and  when  they  heard  Jesus  say, 


J 


94  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

with  authority,  ''  Son,  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee," 
they  raised  their  protest,  instantly,  and  cried  with 
indignation,  "  Why  doth  this  man  thus  speak  blas- 
phemies ?  Who  can  forgive  sins  but  God  alone  ?  " 
The  word  of  Jesus,  in  answer,  denoted,  substan- 
tially, the  bringing  of  a  new  force  among  us.  As 
man,  did  He  forgive.  He  does  not  speak  thus: 
"  That  ye  may  know  that  /  have  power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins,"  as  if  arguing,  ''therefore  I  am  God;" 
a  different  point  is  proposed  to  them  :  "  Know  ye 
that  the  Son  of  man  hath  that  power."  True  as 
the  former  conclusion  is,  something  else  is  sug- 
gested here.  The  power  to  absolve  is  now  lodged 
in  Christ  as  man  ;  to  Him,  as  the  Son  of  man,  is 
extended  a  prerogative  of  God.  There  is  a  par- 
allel passage  in  St.  John,  v.  2J  :  "  He  hath  au- 
thority to  execute  judgment  also,  because  He  is 
the  Son  of  man.''  We  all  admit  and  feel  the  force 
of  this  limitation ;  man  shall  be  judged  by  One  who 
has  man's  own  nature.  Is  it  other  than  a  preju- 
dice which  prevents  us  from  seeing  the  same  idea 
in  this  passage  in  St.  Mark?  Jesus,  in  forgiving 
sins,  exercised  the  authority  belonging  to  Him  as 
the  omnipotent  and  eternal  Son  ;  and  yet  He  puts  it 
thus  to  them,  that  what  He  does,  He  does  as  man. 
It  was  distinctly  a  part  of  His   ministry  of  recon- 


THE   LESSER   SACRAMENTS.  95 

ciliation  ;  and  when  he  committed  that  ministry  of 
reconciliation  to  men,  He  gave  them,  ministerially, 
that  power  which,  in  its  first  exercise,  awakened' 
such  indignation,  caused  such  astonishment,  and 
received  so  ample  a  proof  of  the  right  of  the 
speaker  to  exercise  it.  Henceforth,  the  sons  of 
men  on  earth  have  power  to  forgive  sins,  subject 
to  the  conditions  imposed  by  the  Incarnate  Son  of 
God.  Belief  in  the  remission  of  sins  by  sacramental 
means  is  an  article  of  the  Christian  Faith  as  con- 
tained in  the  Nicene  Creed.  The  power  of  absolu-' 
tion  is  exercised  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  sacra- 
ment of  Baptism.  It  is  exercised  by  the  priest, 
when  he  administers  to  the  faithful  the  sacrament 
of  Holy  Communion.  It  is  exercised  now  pub- 
licly, and  anon  privately,  in  the  absolutions  declared 
and  pronounced  to  the  penitent.  To  that  end  some 
be  made  priests  :  "  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the 
office  and  work  of  a  priest  in  the  Church  of  God. 
Whose  sins  thou  dost  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  ; 
and  whose  sins  thou  dost  retain,  they  are  re- 
tained/' ''' 

On  this  subject  of  Absolution,  Penitence,  or  Pen- 
ance, we  are  put   on  our  defence,   through  the  in- 

*  See  "  The  Ordering  of  Priests." 


9^  LENTEN'  LECTURES. 

tense  and  bitter  prejudices  and  hostility  awakened 
by  the  mere  mention  of  the  word.  On  no  point 
are  men  so  sensitive,  on  none  do  they  become  so 
speedily  excited  ;  auricular  confession  is  regarded 
as  a  term  taken  from  the  vocabulary  of  the  Evil  One 
himself.  Therefore  the  theologians  of  the  Church 
have  been  at  the  pains  to  arrange  and  publish 
catenae  of  authorities  on  this  point,  in  defence  of 
their  position,  and  in  deprecation  of  the  astonishing 
ignorance  on  the  subject.  It  is  not  known,  or  it  is 
intentionally  concealed,  that  the  practice  of  private 
confession  and  the  doctrine  of  absolution  have 
come  down  to  us  with  the  recommendation  of  a 
great  number  of  WTiters  and  teachers  of  unimpeach- 
able Protestant  character,  and  have  the  authority 
of  the  most  highly  venerated  names  in  the  Angli- 
can Church.  On  this  point  reference  may  be  made 
to  a  pamphlet,  by  the  Rev.  C.  N.  Gray,  entitled  "A 
Statement  on  Confession,'*  and  reprinted  in  this  city 
in  1872,  with  an  introduction  by  one  of  the  most 
learned  of  the  professors  of  this  Seminary,  the  Rev. 
Milo  Mahan.*  The  student  who  desires  to  pursue 
the  subject  to  a  farther  point  should  read  Dr. 
Pusey's    preface    to    his    translation    of    the    Abb^ 

*  See  Appended  Notes,  No.  III. 


THE   LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  97 

Gaume's  ''  Manual  for  Confessors."  In  that  ex- 
haustive document,  one  hundred  and  seventy-four 
octavo  pages  in  length,  he  has  demonstrated  the 
lawfulness  of  the  practice  so  fully  and  so  ably  that 
nothing  further  can  be  added  or  desired.  I  cannot 
refrain  from  quoting  the  summary  with  which  he 
brings  the  preface  to  a  close  : 

"  I  thought  it  a  work  of  charity  to  bring  before  those  who 
would  hear  some  portion  of  the  evidence  that  the  very  chief 
of  our  divines  have  recognized  confession  and  absolution  as  a 
provision  of  our  Church  for  the  healing  of  our  infirmities  and 
the  cure  of  diseases  which  might  otherwise  fester  and  bring 
death  upon  the  soul. 

"  It  may,   anyhow,  startle  some   that  v/hat  they  have  been 
ignorantly  declaiming  against,  as  undermining  the  system  of 
the  Church   of  England,   has   been  maintained   by  the  most 
zealous  of  her  defenders  ;  that  what  they  have  condemned  as 
Roman  has  been  claimed  by  controversialists  of  ours  against 
Rome  ;  that  what  they  have   spoken   against  as  injurious  to 
the  soul,  and  interfering  between   it  and   its   Redeemer,  has 
been  valued   by  some  who  lived  in  closest  union  with  him. 
Some  may  be  healthfully  ashamed  that  they  have  declaimed      ^'-i,a>/-<^  ■^'^■-' 
against  the  practice  as  unprotestant,  when  it  is  advocated  in;'  ^"^^  JX^C\ 
all  the  Lutheran  formulee  ;  some   that  they  declaimed  against    j,      , 
it  as  undermining  the  Reformation,  seeing  that  it  was  advo- 
cated  by  reforniers  such  as  Cranm.er,  Ridley,  and  Latimer;        /     "^^ '     ^-IJ 
some,  who  have  been  pressing  upon   the  bishops  to  put  down 
it  and  us,  may  be  checked   in  their  eagerness  when  they  see 
7 


i-y 


98  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

that  four  archbishops  and  twenty-one  bishops,  of  repute  as 
writers,  have  more  or  less  strongly  advocated  it  ;  that  ten 
l)ishops  or  more,  in  their  visitation  articles,  inquired  whether 
their  clergy  had  invited  their  people  to  confession  ;  some  of 
intellect  may,  perhaps,  pause,  as  if  they  may  have  been  mis- 
taken— anyhow  they  cannot  pooh-pooh  it — when  they  see 
such  names  as  Berkeley,  Hooker,  Sanderson,  Barrow,  Pear- 
son, against  them  ;  some  of  unction  may  hesitate  when  they 
see  such  as  Bishops  Hall,  Andrewes,  Ken,  J.  Taylor,  Wilson, 
G.  Herbert,  on  the  other  side  ;  some,  who  conscientiously  say 
'  The  Bible  and  the  Bible  only,'  even  while  their  tradition 
overrides  the  plain  teaching  of  the  Bible,  may  be  startled  to 
see  'the  immortal  Chillingworth  ' — as  some  used  to  call  him 
— even  vehemently  inviting  to  what  they  themselves  vehe- 
mently condemn."* 

In  palliation  of  the  temper  with  which  many  es- 
timable persons  so  strenuously — might  I  not  say  so 
viciously  ? — oppose  the  teaching  of  this  great  cloud 
of  witnesses,  it  may  be  said  that  they  do  not  appre- 
ciate the  difference  between  the  Roman  and  the 
Anglican  Churches  on  the  subject  of  Absolution. 
That  difference  is  fundamental.  In  the  Roman 
Church  they  have  a  '' Sacrament  of  Penarice''  neces- 
sary to  salvation  ;  it  restores  to  the  recipient  the 
perfect  purity  which  he  is  supposed  to  have  regained 

*  Pusey's  translation  of  Abbe  Gaume's  "  Manual  for  Confessors," 
preface,  pp.  1 51-153. 


THE   LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  99 

in  baptism  ;  it  is  the  sole  means  of  obtaining  par- 
don for  post-baptismal  sin  ;  it  is  the  indispensable 
condition  to  the  reception  of  Holy  Communion. 
In  the  Anglican  Church  Absolution — for  we  have 
no  sacrament  of  Penance  in  the  Roman  sense  of 


the  word — is  a  simple  privilege  of  the  faithful.  To 
make  confession  privately  to  a  priest  is  not  matter 
of  obligation  ;  it  is  not  a  general  duty  ;  it  is  not 
enforced  ;  it  is  not  recommended  for  general  use  ; 
its  practice  gives  no  right  to  self-laudation  on  the 
ground  of  a  higher  status  in  duty  to  the  Church, 
nor  may  they  who  decline  to  do  so  be  justly 
charged  with  shortcoming  in  their  duty.  The 
mind  of  this  Church  has  been  fully  and  happily 
expressed  in  the  well-known  passage  in  the  1st 
Book  of  King  Edward  VI.  : 

"  And  if  there  be  any  of  you  whose  conscience  is  troubled 
and  grieved  in  anything,  lacking  comfort  or  counsel,  let  him 
come  to  me,  or  to  some  other  discreet  and  learned  Priest, 
taught  in  the  law  of  God,  and  confess  and  open  his  sin  and 
grief  secretly,  that  he  may  receive  such  ghostly  counsel, 
advice,  and  comfort  that  his  conscience  may  be  relieved,  and 
that  of  us — as  of  the  Ministers  of  God  and  of  the  Church — he 
may  receive  comfort  and  Absolution,  to  the  satisfaction  of  his 
mind,  and  avoiding  of  all  scruple  and  doubtfulness  ;  requir- 
ing such  as  shall  be  satisfied  with  a  general  Confession  not  to 
be  offended  with  them  that  do  use,  to  their  further  satisfying, 


lOO  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

the  auricular  and  secret  confession  to  the  Priest  ;  nor  those 
also  which  think  needful  or  convenient,  for  the  quietness  of 
their  own  consciences,  particularly  to  open  their  sins  to  the 
Priest,  to  be  offended  with  them  that  are  satisfied  with  their 
humble  confession  to  God,  and  the  general  Confession  to  the 
Church  ;  but  in  all  things  to  follow  and  keep  the  rule  of 
charity  ;  and  every  man  to  be  satisfied  with  his  own  con- 
science, not  judging  other  men's  minds  or  consciences, 
whereas  he  hath  no  warrant  of  God's  Word  to  the  same." 

Such  is  the  view  of  Absolution  held  by  the  great 
divines  to  whom  the  revival  of  the  1<^  half-century 
was  due,  and  such  is  the  view  of  teachers  nearer 
our  own  day  who  represent  the  mind  of  the  Church. 
According  to  them,  Absolution  is  not  '^  a  sacrament 
of  the  Gospel  "  necessary  to  acceptance  with  God, 
but  a  privilege  of  those  who  are  drawn  to  seek  it 
under  the  sense  of  sin,  and  a  help  to  certain  spirits 
who  feel  a  special  need.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
there  is  a  disposition  to  pass  beyond  the  Anglican 
line  and  to  swing  far  over  towards  that  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  ;  that  we  have  among  us  enthu- 
siastic persons  who,  if  they  do  not  actually  insist 
on  confession  as  matter  of  obligation,  go  very  near 
to  that  ;  who  subject  timid  and  sensitive  individ- 
uals to  a  moral  suasion  on  that  point  tantamount 
to  compulsion  and  command.  To  this  tendency 
may  be  due  the   strong   reaction   against  a  helpful 


THE   LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  lOI 

and  salutary  practice,  of  which  many  would  have 
availed  themselves  if  they  had  been  led  and  not 
driven.  If  men  had  been  content  to  follow  strictly 
the  line  traced  out  for  them  by  our  great  Anglican 
divines,  and  by  such  teachers  and  fathers  of  our 
own  communion  as  Mahan  and  Ewer,  it  would  have 
been  better  for  us  all.  There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the 
sentiments  of  Pusey  and  Liddon  on  this  point.  Dr. 
Liddon,  in  a  letter  recently  published,  says  : 

"  The  question  of  private  confession  is  left  by  our  Prayer- 
book  to  the  decision  of  the  individual  conscience,  and  it  is 
difficult  for  any  other  person  to  settle,  because  it  must  be 
settled  in  view  of  a  spiritual  history  known  only  to  the  soul 
itself  and  to  God." 

"Confession  is  medicine  and  not  food,  and  is  to  be  used 
when  needed,  and  not  as  merely  a  matter  of  periodical  pro- 
priety when  the  conscience  feels  that  no  need  exists."  * 

*  The  letter  from  which  these  quotations  are  made  was  an  answer 
to  one  who  asked  Dr.  Liddon's  opinion  on  the  subject  of  private 
confession,  the  writer  stating  that  he  had  been  taught  as  a  youth  to 
use  confession,  but  that  for  a  long  time  he  had  neglected  its  use  ; 
also  quoting  language  which  suggested  that  it  was  sufficient  to  con- 
fess our  sins  to  our  Great  High  Priest  in  heaven,  without  confessing 
them  in  the  presence  of  any  earthly  priest  as  well. 

"Christ  Church,  Oxford,  March,  1883. 

"  My  Dear : 

"  The  question  of  private  confession  is  left  by  our  Prayer-book  to 
the  decision  of  the  individual  conscience,  and  it  is  difficult  for  any 
other  person  to  settle,  because  it  must  be  settled  in  view  of  a  spir- 
itual history  known  only  to  the  soul  itself,  and  to  God. 


102  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

Our  own  revered  Mahan — *'  clariim  et  venerabile 
nomeii  !  " — expressed  himself  as  follows  : 

"  I   have  never  taught  or  practised  any  doctrine  of  confes- 

"  I  have  myself  used  confession  whenever  I  have  needed  it  ever 
since  1847,  and  have  never  regretted  it.  I  think  it  braces  the  soul 
as  nothing  else  does,  while  the  absolution  that  follows  is  a  more 
direct  and  peremptory  application  of  the  absolving  power  left  by 
Our  Lord  to  His  Church  than  the  more  general  formulae  of  the  Daily 
and  Communion  Services. 

"  I  have  felt  too,  as  regards  my  own  case,  that  Bishop  Butler's 
general  doctrine  about  the  'safer'  course  in  questions  of  conduct 
points  distinctly  to  the  practice. 

"  Perhaps,  too,  it  ought  to  be  considered  that  there  is  some  risk  in 
giving  up  any  religious  practice  which  has  once  been  adopted. 

"In  saying  this,  I  do  not  forget  that  confession  is  medicine  and 
not  food,  and  is  to  be  used  when  needed,  and  not  as  merely  a  matter 
of  periodical  propriety,  when  the  conscience  feels  that  no  need  exists. 
But  there  is  risk,  when  a  person  has  once  used  confession,  in  neglect- 
ing to  use  it  if  the  conscience  suggests  it. 

"  I  have  a  true  affection  for  ,  whose  language  you  quote,  but 

should  doubt  whether  he  has  ever  used  confession  in  his  life,  and 
when  this  is  the  case,  a  man  can  only  look  at  the  question  from  one 
side,  and  make  a  priori  guesses  as  to  what  may  happen  in  a  contin- 
gency of  which  he  has  no  practical  knowledge. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  finiteness  and  imperfections  of  the  eaYthly 
minister,  and  the  omniscience  and  tenderness  of  our  Great  High 
Priest  in  heaven,  the  former  does,  by  Christ's  commission,  help  us, 
if  we  will,  to  repent  and  make  a  great  moral  effort  which  is  NOT 
made  so  easily  when  we  are  alone. 

"  If  you  rightly  quote  the  language,  it  seems  to  suggest  that  the 
earthly  priest  is  in  place  of  the  heavenly,  whereas,  if  he  does  his 
duty,  he  leads  us  up  to  Him. 

"  I  am,  Dear , 

"  Ever  yours, 

"  H.    P.   LiDDON." 


THE   LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  IO3 

sion  without  carefully  guarding  against  the  notion  o{  conipiil-  l/^ 

sion  which  is  the  gist  of  the  Roman  doctrine.  ...  In  all 
my  innumerable  answers  on  confession,  on  which  I  have  been 
appealed  to  by  all  sorts  of  men,  and  for  all  sorts  of  purposes, 
I  have  invariably  taught,  first  of  all,  that  confession  should 
always  be  voluntary  and  unforced  ;  I  might  almost  say  that  I 
Jiate  enforced  confession,  believing  it  to  be  destructive  of  the 
chief  good  of  confession." 

To  the  same  effect  are  the  following  words  of  Dr. 
Ewer,  some  time  rector  of  St.  Ignatius'  Church  in 
this  city  : 

"  I  hold  that  sins  are  forgiven  to  the  faithful  baptized,  by 
God,  without  confession  to  man,  and,  therefore,  that  the 
sacrament  of  Absolution  is  not  to  be  '  obtruded  upon  men's 
consciences  as  a  matter  necessary  to  salvation.'  But  I  hold 
that  such  confession,  previous  to  Absolution,  although  not 
peremptorily  commanded  to  be  used  by  all,  nor  set  up  as  a 
matter  necessary  to  salvation  for  any,  is  yet  not  only  per- 
mitted but,  under  certain  circumstances,  advised  by  the 
Anglican  Communion."  * 

To  one  other  rite  must  reference  be  made.  ^^^f^v^i*^  ^ 

"Extreme  Unction,"  says  Bishop  Harold  Browne,  "is  an 
ordinance  concerning  which  we  differ  from  the  Church  of 
Rome  more  than  on  the  other  four.     We   admit  the   proper 

*  Correspondence  between  the  Right  Reverend  the  Bishop  of  Con- 
necticut and  the  Rev.  F.  C.  Ewer,  D.D.,  Rector  of  Christ  Church, 
New  York,  on  the  Doctrine  of  the  Church  touching  the  Seven 
Catholic  Sacraments,  p.  15. 


I04  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

use  of  Confirmation,  Confession,  Orders,  and  Matrimony  ; 
but  Extreme  Unction  we  neither  esteem  to  be  a  sacrament 
nor  an  ordinance  of  the  Church  at  all.  As  used  in  the  mod- 
ern Church  of  Rome,  it  implies  unction  with  olive  oil,  blessed 
by  the  bishop,  and  applied  by  the  priest  to  the  five  senses  of 
the  dying  man.  It  is  considered  as  conveying  God's  pardon 
and  support  in  the  last  hour.  It  is  administered  when  all 
hope  of  recovery  is  gone,  and  generally  no  food  is  permitted 
to  be  taken  after  it.  The  Roman  Catholic  controversialists," 
he  continues,  "can  find  no  primitive  authority  for  this  ordi- 
nance :  the  Greeks  still  practice  Unction,  but  do  not  consider 
it  a  sacrament."  * 

Unction,  as  thus  practised  in  the  Roman  Church, 
is  precisely  what  our  Article  describes  as  a  "corrupt 
following  of  the  apostles."  But  between  unction 
more  Ronianensium,  and  unction  as  described  and 
recommended  by  St.  James,  there  is  a  difference. 
Of  the  latter  Bishop  Forbes  of  Brechin  has  spoken 
in  words  which  I  quote  as  covering  the  case: 

"  The  unction  of  the  sick  is  the  Lost  Pleiad  of  the  Anglican 
firmament.  One  must  at  once  confess  and  deplore  that  a  dis- 
tinctly Scriptural  practice  has  ceased  to  be  commanded  in  the 
Church  of  England.  Excuses  may  be  made  of  'corrupt  fol- 
lowing of  the  apostles,'  in  that  it  was  used,  contrary  to  the 
mind  of  St.  James,  when  all  hope  of  restoration  of  bodily 
health  was  gone  ;  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  there  has  been 


*  "Exposition  of  the  XXXIX.  Art.,"  Vol.  II.  pp.  317-319. 


THE  LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  IO5 

practically  lost  an  apostolic  practice,  whereby,  in  case  of 
grievous  sickness,  the  faithful  were  anointed  and  prayed  over, 
for  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  and  to  restore  them,  if  God 
so  willed,  or  to  give  them  spiritual  support  in  their  maladies. 
The  meagreness  of  tradition  is  replaced  in  some 
measure  by  the  agreement  of  the  Greeks,  the  Armenians,  the 
Nestorians,  and  all  the  Orientals,  with  the  Latins  on  this  sub- 
ject ;  so  that  one  cannot  doubt  that  a  sacramental  use  of 
anointing  the  sick  has  been  from  the  beginning."  * 

Faithful  to  the  old  customs,  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land appointed  a  service  for  the  Unction  of  the 
Sick  in  her  first  Reformed  Prayer-book.  An  office 
for  the  same  purpose  appears  in  the  Non-Jurors' 
Liturgy  of  171 8,  and  also  in  the  "  Liturgy  for  the 
Church  of  England  "  compiled  by  William  Whis- 
ton,  1713.  The  unction  of  the  sick  was  lawful,  and 
in  occasional  use  in  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Scot- 
land, in  1784,  when  the  Scottish  bishops  Kilgour, 
Skinner,  and  Petrie  consecrated  and  entered  into  a 
**  Concordat  "  with  our  own  Seabury  ;  the  saintly 
and  ascetic  Bishop  Jolly,  of  Moray,  was  wont  to 
anoint  the  sick,  after  the  example  of  St.  James, 
without  let,  hinderance,  or  protest.  There  are 
not  wanting,  among  the  bishops  of  the  American 
Church,  some  who  concur  in  deploring  the  loss  of 

*  "  Exposition  of  the  XXXIX.  Art.,"  Vol    II.  pp.  463-467. 


I06  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

this  primitive  ordinance,  and  predicting  its  restora- 
tion among  us  at  some  propitious  time. 

To  sum  up  what  has  now  been  presented  to  your 
consideration,  on  the  subject  of  several  minor  ordi- 
nances in  the  Church.  While  there  appears  to  be 
no  ground  in  Scripture  or  antiquity  for  limiting  the 
sacraments  to  a  precise  number,  we  must  regard 
the  position  of  the  Anglican  Communion  on  this 
point  to  be  reverent  and  wise.  Many  ordinances 
come  forth  to  view,  as  we  consider  the  relation  of 
men  to  the  Almighty  Father  through  the  medium 
of  His  Incarnate  Son,  and  the  needed  application 
of  the  Gospel  gifts.  Let  it  be  our  aim  to  study 
these  great  mysteries  with  a  ready  will  to  take  in 
the  whole  truth  ;  and  let  the  same  mind  be  in  us 
which  was  in  the  ancient  fathers  and  doctors  of 
the  Church.  A  narrow  rationalism  should  not  con- 
fine us,  whether  it  be  that  bred  of  the  innate  pride 
of  the  human  heart,  or  that  same  temper  intensified 
by  the  idea  of  apparent  growth  in  knowledge  of 
many  things.  Formal  and  restrictive  statements, 
though  appealing  to  the  love  of  systematic  arrange- 
ment, and  conferring,  as  they  do,  no  doubt,  an  air 
of  rounded  finish,  should,  on  the  very  ground  that 
they  approach  the  line  of  the  artificial,  be  regarded 
with  mistrust.     Nothing  must  be  allowed  to  conceal 


THE   LESSER   SACRAMENTS.  I07 

or  obscure  the  facts,  that  the  entire  system  of  the 
Gospel  has  a  sacramental  cast ;  that  human  nature 
was  constructed  on  a  sacramental  plan  ;  that  man's 
life,  in  nature  and  in  grace  alike,  is  sacramental  in 
its  character  ;  and  that,  if  we  are  to  accept  Bible 
teaching  simply  and  naturally,  these  conditions  are 
never  to  change,  but  to  be  prolonged  and  continued 
in  our  eternal  state.  For,  though  the  "  inward  part 
or  thing  signified  "  in  our  present  vital  union  with 
Christ  will  then  be  realized  in  an  all-glorious  and 
inconceivably  blessed  fulness,  yet  we  believe  that  it 
will  be  realized  in  a  form  ;  in  the  form  of  an  im- 
mortal, glorious,  powerful,  and  incorruptible  life,- 
but  still  a  corporal  life  ;  the  life  of  the  new  body 
of  the  resurrection,  which,  like  the  glorious  and 
glorified  Body  of  the  Ascended  Lord,  shall  live  and 
abide  forever,  never  to  be  divided  from  the  Godhead 
in  His  Person."^  All  ordinances,  be  they  greater  or 
lesser,  which  help  us  in  the  establishment  or  main- 
tenance of  the  union  with  Christ,  have  a  place  in 
the  Gospel,  and  an  honor  as  Sacraments  or  Sacra- 
mentals  in   His  Church. 

The  wider  the  view  we  take  of  this  subject,  the 
broader  its  application  to  the  relations  of  our  life, 

*  See  Article  IV.,  "  Of  the  Resurrection  of  Christ." 


I08  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

as  members  of  the  family  and  the  Church,  as  pil- 
grims and  strangers  here,  as  subject  to  unfavorable 
influences  from  every  point  on  the  horizon,  the 
better  shall  we  be  equipped  for  the  strife  to  which 
we  are  called  to-day.  It  has  been  said,  and  with 
truth,  that  the  intellectual  conflict  which  the 
Church  must  wage  to-day  is  no  longer  with  this  or 
that  heresy  ;  it  is  no  more  Catholicity  versus  Protes- 
tantism, but  Christianity  versus  Paganism.  It  is 
Church  or  no  Church ;  it  is  faith  or  infidelity. 
Modern  paganism  rejects  the  Holy  Scriptures  as 
the  inspired  Word  of  God,  scoffs  at  tradition,  de- 
spises the  fathers,  doctors,  and  theologians  of  the 
Church,  and  takes  its  stand  on  reason  alone.  It 
knows  nothing  of  the  Supernatural,  will  have 
nothing  of  it,  rules  it  out  of  all  discussion.  But 
the  Sacramental  System  is  the  exhibition,  the  ap- 
plication, the  realization  of  the  Supernatural  to 
men  ;  and  the  wider  its  influence  is  felt,  the  farther 
its  salutary  machinery  extends,  the  more  sensibly 
must  the  Supernatural  be  felt  and  known  among 
men. 

A  few  w^ords  in  conclusion.  We  have  been  look- 
ing upon  the  lesser  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the 
Church  ;  we  have  not  yet  fixed  our  eyes  upon  the 
greater  orbs  which  shine  there.     It  is  like  w^itching 


THE   LESSER   SACRAMENTS.  IO9 

the  Pleiades  rising  through  the  mellow  shade  ere 
descr^'ing  the  glorious  beacon-fire  of  Jupiter,  or  the 
lamps  of  great  Orion  blazing  through  the  night. 
But  even  so,  how  wonderful,  how  precious,  are 
these  minor  sacraments  !  What  help  do  they  con- 
tinually minister,  what  cheer,  what  joy  do  they 
bring  to  the  children  of  the  covenant !  By  them,  as 
the  instruments  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  little 
ones  are  made  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power 
of  His  might;  man  and  woman  are  bound  together 
by  a  power  even  greater  than  their  mutual  love, 
and  strengthened  by  a  gift  which  hallows  and  sanc- 
tifies their  wedded  life,  and  makes  the  home  a 
sacred  inclosure,  guarded  by  good  angels,  and  beau- 
tiful as  a  garden  of  the  Lord  ;  earnest  young  spirits, 
in  the  strength  of  opening  manhood,  take  up  the 
cross  to  bear  it  after  Jesus,  with  the  assurance  that 
a  strength  above  their  own  is  given  by  the  laying 
on  of  pastoral  hands,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
for  the  edifying  of  the  Body  of  Christ  ;  souls  in  the 
grief  of  penitence  or  the  agony  of  remorse,  in  the 
clouded  hours  of  the  mortal  day  and  at  the  coming 
of  the  death-thraw,  are  comforted  and  upheld  by 
the  clear  and  cheerful  words  :  ''  Be  of  good  cheer, 
thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee  !  "  Who  can  tell  how  far 
these  streams   of   mercy  flow  through    the    careful, 


no  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

sorrowful  world,  what  wealth  of  blessing  they  carry- 
to  the  habitation  of  men  !  It  is  hard  for  one  who 
comprehends  the  subject  to  understand  how  men 
can  consent  to  deprive  themselves  of  this  abundant 
outflow  of  spiritual  refreshment  ;  harder  to  imagine 
what  we  should  do  without  it.  The  harmonies  of 
nature,  the  music  of  the  sphered  heavens  above  us, 
breathe  through  these  mysterious  ordinances  as 
winds  through  the  chords  of  a  lute.  Everything 
bespeaks  reparation,  restoration,  the  recovery  of 
something  lost,  the  prophecy  of  something  yet 
more  satisfying  to  come  hereafter.  Beautiful,  in- 
deed, is  the  world,  as  the  work  of  God  ;  darkening 
here  and  there,  no  doubt,  under  deep  and  solemn 
shadow,  while  yet  that  very  shadow  adds  effect  and 
brilliancy  to  the  rays  reflected  from  the  Fount  of 
light  perpetual :  but  when  is  the  world,  the  created 
universe,  so  beautiful  as  when  we  see  all  through  it 
the  golden  threads,  the  silvery  cords,  tlie  broidered 
work  of  a  divine  and  sacramental  life?  "Two 
worlds  are  ours,"  as  Keble  says,  the  outer  and  the 
inner,  and  the  outer  is  but  the  portal  through 
which  we  pass  to  the  more  glorious  things  within. 
At  each  successive  stage  of  mortal  pilgrimage  we 
find  ourselves  in  touch  with  some  mysterious 
power ;    at   every  step    are  we    met    by  something 


THE   LESSER    SACRAMENTS.  Ill 

which  discloses  God  and  stamps  on  us  a  fresh  im- 
pression and  draws  us  forward,  and  ever  nearer  to 
the  unseen.  Such  is  the  use  of  those  lesser  ordi- 
nances, which  seem  so  arranged  as  to  hallow  the 
morning,  the  noonday,  the  evening,  to  fit  into  the 
several  relations  of  man  to  his  fellow  men,  to  help 
him  through  the  rough  places,  to  lead  him  on, 

"  O'er  moor  and  fen,  o'er  crag  and  torrent,  till 
The  night  is  gone." 

Such  is  their  use,  and  such  the  use  qf__the  hun/ 
dred  more  of  the  same  class,  though  of  inferioii, 
grade,  by  which,  as  by  a  sign-language,  our  Father 
"addresses  His  children.  A  life  ordered  on  a  plan 
like  this  must  be,  upon  the  whole,  one  of  joy  and 
peace.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  know  that  we  are  not 
thrown  back  on  ourselves  ;  that  we  must  not  starve 
from  all  that  the  heart  desires;  that  we  shall  not 
go  unfed,  uncomforted,  unhouselled,  through  and 
out  of  this  world  ;  that  we  need  not  make  our 
journey  by  a  bitter  path  of  straitness,  leanness,  and 
misery,  without  helper  or  Saviour,  Vvithout  sign  to 
faith,  or  certain  assurance,  or  gleam  of  spiritual 
glory  from  the  forms  of  a  godless,  soulless  creation. 
Joyful,  indeed,  must  be  he  who  sees  through  the 
outer  and  reads  within  ;  who  finds  God's  image  and 


112  LENTEN   LECTURES. 

superscription  on  all  that  we  touch  and  all  that 
touches  us;  who  feels  Him  coming  forth,  through 
darkness,  and  making  that  darkness  as  clear  as  the 
day. 

"  Two  worlds  are  ours  ;   'tis   only  sin 
Forbids   us  to  descry 
The  mystic  heaven  and  earth  within. 
Plain  as  the  sea  and  sky. 

Thou  who  hast  given  me  eyes  to  see 

And  love   this  sight  so  fair, 
Give  me  a  heart  to  find  out  Thee, 

And  read  Thee  everywhere." 


IV. 

HOLY    BAPTISM. 


LECTURE    IV. 

HOLY    BAPTISM. 

To  attempt  a  full  and  satisfactory  treatment  of 
the  subject  of  Holy  Baptism  in  a  lecture  of  an 
hour's  length  would  be  to  undertake  what  is  be- 
yond the  power  of  man.  The  Oxford  Movement, 
as  it  is  commonly  called,  was  an  instance  of  the 
recovery  of  a  Church  from  lethargy  and  weakness, 
through  faith  in  her  own  divine  origin,  and  the  re- 
assertion  of  her  rights  as  a  branch  of  the  Catholic 
family.  That  movemicnt  commenced,  as  was  nat- 
ural, with  the  reaffirmation  of  the  principle  of 
Apostoj[jc_Succession,  as  vital  to  the  proof  of  legit i- 
macy;  it  proceeded  with  the  restatement  of  the 
doctrines  of  grace  and  their  sacramental  applica- 
tion. About  the  year  1835,  when  the  movement 
was  in  successful  progress,  Dr.  Pusey  prepared 
what  is  described  by  Dean  Church  as  "  perhaps 
the  most  elaborate  treatise  on  Baptism  that  has  yet 
appeared  in  the  English  language."  "    It  came  out  in 

*  "The  Oxford  Movement,"  p.  119. 


Il6  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

three  parts,  in  the  "Tracts  for  the  Times,"  forming, 
in  the  second  edition,  a  vob.ime  of  four  hundred 
pages.  Let  a  man  look  through  that  volume, 
crammed  as  it  is  with  quotations  from  Holy  Script- 
ure, the  Fathers,  the  Liturgies,  and  the  writings 
of  all  kinds  of  dissenters  and  heretics,  ancient  and 
modern,  and  he  will  form  a  just  idea  of  the  breadth 
and  importance  of  the  subject  now  before  us,  and 
the  impossibility  of  doing  it  justice  in  the  time  at 
my  command.  I  must  limit  myself  to  saying  a 
few  things,  as  concisely  as  possible,  on  the  first 
of  the  two  great  Sacraments  of  the  Gospel,  in  its 
relation  to  the  Incarnation,  and  its  place  in  the 
extension  of  the  benefits  thereof  to  the  human 
family. 
^  And,  first,  be  this  observed,  that  Holy  Baptism 
is  declared  by  the  Church  to  be  ''  generally  neces- 
3!7  /  /  sary  to  salvation."  The  statement  is  made,  of 
course,  on  the  authority  of  Christ,  who  said,  ''  He 
that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved  ;  "  * 
and  "except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  f  This 
sacrament,  as  we  understand  the  case,  is  the  instru- 
ment whereby   men  are  grafted  into  the  vine,  and 

*  St.  Mark,  xvi.  i6.  f  St.  John,  iii,  5. 


\fM^Ic^. 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  1 1? 

placed  in  direct  and  personal  relation  to  Christ,  the/ 
Second  Adam.  In  baptism  they  are  made  "  mem- 
bers of  Christ,  children  of  God,  and  inheritors  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  "^  relations  not  held 
before  the  administration  of  the  rite.  They  are 
"  buried  with  Christ  in  baptism,  wherein  also  they 
are  risen  with  Him."  t  The  moment  of  baptiam  is^.j 
for  them,  that  of  a  new   birth   into   a   life   in  God. ' 

Where  that   sacrament   maybe  had,  no  man   is,  or  jju 

can  be.  In  "Christ  till  he  be  baptized.  These  are 
very  simple  statements ;  they  constitute  the  first 
lessons  taught  to  the  children  of  the  Church  ;  they 
form  the  basis  of  Christian  education.  And  yet, 
notwithstanding  this  rudimental  cast,  they  are  state- 
ments which  it  is  all-important  for  us  at  this  par- 
ticular time  to  reiterate,  and  teach  with  diligence, 
because  the  drift  of  popular  thought  is  against 
them.  To  watch  that  drift  is  the  duty  of  the 
Clergy  of  this  Church  and  of  all  who  desire  to  edu- 
cate on  her  lines  ;  and  I  think  that  there  is  no  more 
curious  or  interesting  subject  of  consideration  at 
present  than  the  persistency  of  the  tenets  of  Pela-  ]i^M^^  0 
gius  and  his  followers,  and  the  fascination  exerted  ^a**"*^^ 
by  them  on  the  modern  mind.     The  Pelagian  her- ^       kl^ 

. ___   jCA^iJ^  " 

*  Catechism  in  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  f  Col.  ii.  12.  V*v 


ii8 


LENTEN  LECTURES. 


esy   has   a  vitality    unexampled    in    the    history  of 
religious  error;  its  strength  to-day  may  be  seen  in 
^Ja.'\    the  popularity  of  such  ideas  as  these — that   every 
Ujil^  f^-"  h'Jman    being,    from    the    fact    that    he    is    man,   is 
fAkO'^J^*^^   already   in    vital    union   with   Christ,  from  the  fact 
^-^^      that  Christ  is  man  also  ;  that  the  immediate  effect 
\        of  the  incarnation  was  to  make  Christ  immanent  in 
all    nations    and    in    every    individual   of  the    race. 
^  This  Christo-Pantheism — for  it   cannot   be  unchari- 
table  to   designate   it   by  that   title — is   manifestly 
without  support  in  the  Scriptures  ;  it  is  contradic- 
tory   to    the   entire   tenor    of  the    teaching   of  the 
apostles,   and   irreconcilable   with   their  acts  ;    it  is 
equally  irreconcilable   with  what   we  are  taught  in 
the  Church  as  to  the  need  and  the  grace  of  Holy 
V  Baptism.     For  among  the  first  principles  of  Church 
I  teaching  are  these,  that  in  us  is  an  innate  fault  and 


/:^ 


corruption  ;  that  men  are  unable  by  any  efforts  of 

.  their  own  to  help,  or  raise,  or  save  themselves  out 

pof    that    natural    state    of    depression;    that    fallen 

;   nature  has  within  it  no  recuperative  power,  till  God 

touches   it   from   outside ;    and    that,   generally,   no 

man   can   be  in  Christ  except  he  be  born  again  of 

water  and  the  Holy  Ghost.     These  statements  are 

principles  of  the  doctrine- of  Christ,  and  a  part  of 

the   foundation   of  the  Christian    Religion,  and   we 


HOL  Y  BAP  TISM.  I  1 9 

rnay  add,  as  the  result  of  observation,  that  wher- 
ever they  are  denied  the  tendency  soon  becomes 
evident  to  change  rehgion  into  a  philosophy  and  to 
deny  the  divine  and  supernatural  elements  which 
constitute  its  vital  force. 

It  is  proposed  to  consider  the  gifts  of  Holy  Bap- 
tism under  the  three  heads  of 

1.  Forgiveness  of  Sins, 

2.  Regeneration. 

3.  Illumination. 

And,  first,  of  the  Forgiveness  of  Sins.     That  this  /. 

is  granted  in  Holy  Baptism  to  every  duly  qualified 
recipient,  is  an  article  of  the  Christian  faith.  *'  I 
acknowledge  one  baptism  for  the  forgiveness  of 
sins."  And  here  we  come  at  once  upon  the  dis- 
tinction between  Sin  Original  and  Sin  Actual.  It 
has  been,  and  is,  the  practice  of  the  Catholic 
Church  to  admit  infants  to  Holy  Baptism.  She 
does  this  on  the  line  of  the  article  in  the  Creed,  on 
the  ground  that  there  is  in  them  a  sin  which  needs  I  IjeJ^ 
and  receives^forgiveness,;  for,  if  it  were  not  so,  it 
would  follow  that  in  places  where  the  Church  was 
settled  and  dominant,  and  at  times  when  adult  bap- 
tism was  the  exception,  and  infant  baptism  the  rule, 
the  article  of  the  Creed  just  referred  to  was  with- 
out   significance.     The    Church    teaches    that    '^  all 


120  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

men  are  conceived  and  born  in  sin;"*  the  words 
are  the  first  which  the  minister  utters  in  his  official 
character  whenever  an  infant  is  presented  for  bap- 
tism;  the  act  of  so  presenting  is  justified  and 
explained  by  the  Church's  estimate  of  the  child's 
natural  and  actual  condition  ;  to  speak  of  a  sinless, 
/  spotless  infant  is  to  describe  what  has  never  ex- 
'  isted  on  the  earth  since  the  hour  of  the  Fall,  save 
once,  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea,  when  Christ  our  Lord 
was  born.  ''  Original,  or  birth  sin,  is  the  fault  and 
corruption  of  the  nature  of  every  man  that  is  natu- 
rally engendered  of  the  offspring  of  Adam  .  .  . 
and  in  every  person  born  into  this  world  it  deserv- 
eth  God's  wrath  and  damnation."  f  To  mend  that 
fault  is  God's  first  work,  a  work  which  must  be 
done  before  anything  else  can  be  done.  It  is  a 
fault  in  the  nature  ;  it  has  nothing  individual  or 
personal  in  it  at  first ;  it  is  not  to  be  confused  with 
/  act,  will,  or  charatte-r ;  the  sufferer   is   not   respon- 

I^Y^^Mk^  sible.  And  yet  it  is  a  difficulty  calling  for  serious 
^^^i»  jT  attention — an  obstacle  which  must  be  somehow  dis- 
^  cjM/-'  posed  of.  The  best  time  to  deal  with  it  is  at  the 
"^fOJoJU^?  birth  of  the  child  into  the  world,  for  then  no  bar  is 
/^-•Vd^Av  interposed  to  the  act  of  the  physician   and  surgeon 


ir.i*J>\^ 


"7 


*  Offices  of  Baptism  in  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
t  Article  IX. 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  121 


of  the  soul.     The   state   of   infancy   is,  to   the  soul 


under  treatment,  what  the  etherized  condition  is  to]  // 

a    patient    undergoing    an    operation — the   subject, j^         .» 
when  passive  and  unconscious,  is  completely  under  \ 
command.     So  with  divine  grace  in  this  sacrament ; 
the  fault  in  our  nature  is  the  thing  to  be  corrected, 
helped,  or  removed  ;  wherever  that  fault  exists  the   Qu^  4^jz^ 
sacrament  is  required,  and  may  be  effectual ;  it  will  "^fouuJl^^ 
be  effectual  unless  man4)lace  some  obstac[e_in  the 
way.     A  child,  as  inheritor  of  the  trouble  common 
to   the   race,   is  a  proper  subject    for  treatment;  a 
child,  having    as    yet    committed    no    actual  sin,  is 
then  best  fitted  for  sacramental  absolution  as  being  i 
unable  by  thought,  word,  or  act  to   stay  the  effec-  ! 
tual  working  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     So  do  we  thinlc,-"^* 
and  so  believe,  of  the  ''one  baptism  for  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins."     In  that  sacrament  original  sin  is  for- 
given,  wherever    it    exists ;     in    infants,    of    course, 
because   there   is   in   them  none   other  to   forgive  ; 
and  if  the  subject  be  of  riper  years,  his  actual  sins, 
committed  ^rior  to  baptism,  are  also  washed  away. 
Thus  the   doctrine   of    Holy  Baptism   contains  the 
refutation  of  the  error  of  those  who  deny  the  origi- 
nal corruption  of   human   nature.     It  is  not   to  be 
regarded  as  a  mere  external  washing,  similar  to  the 
ablutions  practised  by  the  Jews  and  other  ancient 


122  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

people  ;  nor  is  it  a  mere  initiatory  rite  ;  but  it  is  a 
power  of  the  world  to  come.  It  witnesses,  first, 
to  the  absolute  need  of  cleansing  ere  any  one  can 
come  to  the  presence  of  God ;  it  witnesses,  sec- 
ondly, to  the  atoning  work  of  Christ,  who,  by  the 
shedding  of  His  precious  blood,  and  by  His  appli- 
cation of  the  merits  of  that  blood,  so  cleanses  the 
soul  of  the  sinner.  With  singular  fitness  is  the  sign 
of  the  Cross  made  in  the  administration  of  that 
sacrament,  since  baptism  refers  us  to  the  death  on 
Calvary,  and  derives  its  vitality  from  that  sacrificial 
act.  To  deny  the  strength  and  power  of  sin  is  to 
take  all  serious  meaning  out  of  this  sacrament ;  it 
seems  to  serve  thenceforth  no  purpose  sufficiently 
important  to  justify  its  retention  ;  if  retained,  it  is, 
perhaps,  as  a  dead  form  from  which  the  spirit  has 
passed  away. 

Secondly,  baptism  is  "  a  sign  of  Regeneration  or 
new  birth  ;  "  thereby,  '■'  as  by  an  instrument,  men 
are  grafted  into  the  Church,"  which  is  the  Body 
of  Christ.^  Here  again  we  tread  on  ground  worn 
by  many  a  bitter  controversy,  and  deeply  tracked 
by  the  feet  of  combatants  ;  but  it  is  a  comfort  to 
reflect  that  the  battle,  though  long,  did   not  termi- 

*  Article  XXVII. 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  1 23 

nate  in  a  doubtful  issue.  There  is  no  reasonable 
ground  of  doubt,  that  in  the  Prayer-book  Offices  for 
the  Ministration  of  Baptism,  regeneration  is  put 
foremost  as  a  baptismal  gift  ;  the  fact  cannot  be 
concealed  ;  right  or  wrong,  that  is  the  teaching  of 
the  Church.  The  notorious  Gorham  case,  though 
its  immediate  effect  was  to  sustain  the  clique  who 
denied  regeneration  in  baptism,  was,  in  its  ultimate 
result,  a  blessing  to  the  Church  ;  as  has  been  well 
observed  : 

"  The  storm  of  controversy  raised  by  that  case  so  cleared 
the  atmosphere  of  the  clouds  by  which  the  subject  of  baptis- 
mal regeneration  had  been  obscured,  as  practically  to  put  an 
end  to  all  discussion  about  it ;  and  a  later  generation  won- 
ders how  such  a  discussion  could  ever  have  arisen  when  the 
language  of  Holy  Scripture  and  of  the  Prayer-book  is  now 
seen  to  be  so  singularly  plain  and  dogmatic."* 

The  change  to  which  we  apply  the  name   of  l^- ^^-^^xa/^jUj^ 
generation  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  conversion,  f  l^t^fpt^St-^ 
or  alteration  of  any  kind  in  disposition,  mind,  will,    ^^'^^'^'^^'tllir 
or  heart.     It  goes  far  deeper,  down  to  the   roots   of     *^^'i.^-<^^ 
the  being  ;  it  implants  a  spiritual  seed  from  which 
the  whok__S2iritual_life,  including  the  spiritual  body 
which  jTian  shall  wear  eternally,  is  to   be  evolved. 

*  Blunt's  "  Dictionary  of  Sects,  Heresies,  etc.,"  p.  198. 


124  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

As  Dr.  Pusey  says: 

"One  may  then  define  Regeneration  to  be  that  act  whereby 
God  takes  us  out  of  our  relation  to  Adam,  and  makes  us  actual 
members  of  His  Son,  and  so  His  sons,  as  being-  members  of 
His  Ever-Blessed  Son,  and  if  sons,  then  heirs  of  God  through 
Christ.  (Gal.  iv.  7.)  This  is  our  new  birth,  an  actual  birth  of 
God,  of  water,  and  the  Spirit,  as  we  were  actually  born  of  our 
natural  parents  ;  herein  then,  also,  are  we  justified,  or  both 
accounted  and  made  righteous,  since  w-e  are  made  members 
of  Him  who  is  alone  righteous  ;  freed  from  past  sin,  whether 
original  or  actual  ;  have  a  new  principle  of  life  imparted  to 
us,  since,  having  been  made  members  of  Christ,  we  have  a 
portion  of  His  life,  or  of  Him  who  is  our  life  ;  herein  we  have 
also  the  hope  of  the  resurrection  and  of  immortality,  because 
we  have  been  made  partakers  of  His  resurrection,  have  risen 
again  with  Him."     (Col.  ii.  12.) 

A  man  has  no  more  to  do  with  his  second  birth 
into  Christ,  regarded  in  its  character  as  a  divine  act 
wrought  on  him,  than  he  had  to  do  with  his  birth 
from  his  mother's  womb.  We  are  here  directly  in 
front  of  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  and  its  ex- 
tension to  us.  There  was  a  first  Adam  ;  there  is  a 
second.  From  the  first  we  are  descended  carnaliter  ; 
from  him,  our  common  ancestor,  we  inherit  that 
disordered  constitution  with  which  we  are  born  into 
the  world  ;  in  that  first  Adam  we  all  die  ;  for  as 
his  descendants  we  are  become  subject  to  the   law 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  1 25 

of  sin  in  our  members,  and  to  the  wage  and  penalty 
of  sin,  which  is  death.  But  there  is  a  Second 
Adam  ;  and  what  we  lost  by  descent  from  the  first 
is  made  up  to  us,  and  more  than  made  up,  in  the 
Second.  God,  by  His  law  in  grace,  makes  us  mem- 
bers of  the  Second,  as  by  the  lav/  of  nature  we   are 

members  of   the  first.     Regeneration  is  God's  giftf^^ 

to  man,  in  the  sacrament  of  the  new  birth.  For 
then  w^e  receive  the  germ  of  a  new  and  immortal 
life  ;  we  are  born  again,  into  another  family  and 
household  ;  we  come  under  new  conditions,  we  en- 
ter into  a  new  environment  ;  we  have  a  new  Father, 
we  are  set  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death.  The 
analogy  between  the  two  ancestries  is  complete  and 
exact.  If  the  descent  from  the  earthly  ancestor  be 
a  real  and  practical  thing,  not  less  real  and  practi- 
cal is  the  relation  to  the  heavenly  Head.  It  is  not 
an  affair  of  suppositions,  metaphors,  and  figures  of 
speech,  but  a  vital  reality.  This  change  in  the  (/JlM^'^Ob  '* 
natu£e^not  in  the  individual,  and  in  the  state —  '^^^^J^i:^^^ 
not  in  the_charactcr,  is  what  the  Church  means,  in  'h*^^--^'^^- 
declaring  of  every  person  duly  baptized  that  he  is 
thereby  regenerate.  Regeneration  would  not  be 
regeneration,  if  effected  by  ourselves  ;  it  is  brought 
about  by  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver 
of  life.     It  is  accomplished,  not  by  man,  in   the  use 


126  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

of  any  power  of  his  own  ;  nor  could  it  be,  for  the 
condition  in  which  he  comes  into  the  world  deprives 
him  of  the  ability  to  make  himself  over  on  this 
wise  ;  not  by  man,  nor  by  blood,  nor  by  the  will  of 
the  flesh  ;  not  by  wish  for  betterment,  nor  by  faith 
in  himself  ;  not  by  struggle  and  strife  and  aspira- 
tions, but  by  the  power  and  grace  of  God  the  Holy 
Ghost.  To  mark  that  fact  more  distinctly,  and  to 
keep  the  man,  at  the  outset  of  this  new  career,  on 
the  line  of  his  whole  mundane  existence,  in  which, 
as  we  are  never  to  forget,  life  comes  down  from 
\without  and  not  from  within,  it  is  accomplished_bv 
Isign  and  symbol,  by  uttered  word,""by  mention  of 
the  name  of  God,  the  Three  and  One,  and  by  the 
use  of  an  element  of  the  natural  world,  "  sanctified 
to  the  mystical  washing  away  of  sin  ;  "  and  thus 
human  nature,  as  realized  in  the  person  of  one  poor 
suffering  and  dying  creature,  is  brought  into  union 
with  that  same  human  nature  as  realized  in  power, 
glory,  and  eternal  life,  in  the  person  of  the  Son  of 
God.  This  is  to  be  born  anew  of  water  and  of  the 
Spirit  ;  and  thus  is  the  Incarnation  extended  to  us, 
man  by  man,  in  the  sacrament  of  baptism. 

I  believe  that  this  doctrine  is  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  best  scientific  thought  of  the  day,  with 
sound    philosophy,  and    with   the   theology  of    the 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  12/ 

Church,  and  that  it  will  receive  fresh  confirmation 
from  study  in  those  departments. 

Holy  Baptism  is,  for  the  individual,  the  begin- 
ning, the  starting-point,  in  his  new  creation;  the 
agon^  the  battle,  has  not  yet  come  on,  nor  the  time 
when  he  must  do  for  himself.  The  power  of  the 
sacramental  system  lies  first  in  God,  in  nature,  and 
in  the  constituted  order  of  things  before  it  reaches 
men.  It  is  not  an  evolution  in  ourselves,  nor  an 
outcome  of  our  effort;  and  nothing  is  more  dis- 
tinctly narrow  and  contracted  than  the  idea  that 
regeneration  and  conversion  must  be  one  and  the 
same  thing,  for  that  is  as  much  as  to  say  that  it 
is  really  the   man  who  regenerates  himself. 

To  quote  again  from  our  great  master  : 

"No  change  of  heart,  or  of  the  affections,  no  repentance, 
however  radical,  no  faith,  no  life,  no  love,  come  up  to  the  idea 
of  this  '  birth  from  above  ; '  it  takes  them  all  in,  and  compre- 
hends them  all,  but  itself  is  more  than  all  ;  it  is  not  only  the 
creation  of  a  new  heart,  new  affections,  new  desires,  and,  as 
it  were,  a  new  birth  ;  but  is  an  actual  birth  from  above  or 
from  God — a  gift  coming  down  from  God,  and  given  to  faith, 
through  Baptism  ;  yet  not  the  work  ^_/ faith,  but  the  operation 
^'water  and  the  Holy  Spirit,' the  Holy  Spirit  giving  us  a 
new  life  in  the  fountain  opened  by  Him,  and  we  being  born 
therein  ^y  Him,  even  as  our  Blessed  and  Incarnate  Lord  was, 
according  to  the  flesh,  born  of  Him  in  the  Virgin's  womb, 


128  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

Faith  and  repentance  are  the  conditions  on  which  God  gives 
it  ;  water,  sanctified  by  our  Lord's  baptism,  the  womb  of  our 
new  birth  ;  love,  good  works,  increasing  faith,  renovated 
affections,  heavenly  aspirations,  conquest  over  the  flesh,  its 
fruits  in  those  who  persevere  ;  but  it  itself  is  the  gift  of  God, 
a  gift  incomprehensible,  and  not  to  be  confounded  with  or 
restrained  to  any  of  its  fruits  (as  a  change  of  heart,  or  con- 
version), but  illimitable  and  incomprehensible,  as  that  great 
mystery  from  which  it  flows,  the  Incarnation  of  our  Redeemer, 
the  Ever-Blessed  Son  of  God," 

l-i\^,A,.  w  .  Science  here  comes  to  the  aid  of  Catholic  the- 
^>;yj^  $4J^  -ology  ^i^d  confirms  her  statements.  Life  can  only 
come  by  contact  with  life.  Life  must  come  from 
outside ;  there  is  no  such  thing  as  spontaneous 
generation.  It  is  so  with  natural  life;  it  is  so  with 
spiritual  life.  It  is  not  the  m.an  who  makes  himself 
to  live ;  who  evolves  himself  out  of  matter,  and  so 
becomes  the  author  of  his  own  act.  Even  so,  in 
the  case  of  the  soul,  to  make  it  alive,  it  must  be 
touched  from  without  with  life  from  above.  The 
source  of  that  life  is  the  glorified  humanity  of  the 
Son  of  God.  It  is  a  free  gift  to  us,  granted  com- 
plete, without  cooperation  or  agency  of  ours.  It  is  a 
grace,  a  power,  a  vital  germ,  a  new  force,  conveyed 
to  us  by  Holy  Baptism,  as  by  an  instrument  and 
channel  of  importation.  To  fail  to  see  this,  and  to 
insist,  as  has  been  done,  that  the  work  begins  in  the 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  1 29 

man  himself,  and  that  spiritual  life  is  the  result  off 
his  prevenient  action,  is  to  take  a  position  not  only 
destructive    of    the    leading    principle    in    Catholic 
theology,  but    also    inconsistent   with   the    laws    of 
life  in  the  natural  and  moral  spheres. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  speak  of  men  as  being 
buried  with  Christ  in  baptism  ;  raised  with  Christ 
in  that  sacrament  ;  then  and  thereby  planted  in 
the  likeness  of  Christ's  death,  freed  from  the  law 
of  sin,  made  complete  in  Him,  and  seated  with 
Him  in  heavenly  places.  These  expressions  indi- 
cate, apparently,  the  presence  and  action  of  some 
unknown  power,  some  unearthly  force,  something 
out  of  the  height,  coming  down  upon  men,  work- 
ing incredible  change,  conveying  supernatural  gifts 
and  blessings  ;  gifts  w4iich  men  are  competent  to 
receive  at  any  age,  and  do  receive,  to  the  good  of 
the  soul,  if  they  place  no  bar  in  the  way.  Chil- 
dren, as  has  been  observed,  can  place  no  bar 
in  the  way,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case, 
and  therefore  infant  baptism  is  the  normal  and 
perfect  illustration  ot  our  subject.  Adults  may 
hinder  or  prevent  its  operation  by  ignorance,  by 
indifference,  by  want  of  due  preparation  ;  to  their 
own  part  must  they  look,  to  their  duty  must  they 
be  urged  by  their  spiritual  guides  ;  but  the  lot  of  J 


I30  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

the    children    is    happier,  and  of   such   is  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.     Then,  when   the  life  has  been  im- 
parted, the  child   having  been  extricated  from  the 
womb  of  its  native  condition  and  brought  into  the 
communion    of    the  Body    of    Christ,    we    look    for 
'  the  fruits  of  the  regenerating  spirit   in  the  life  of 
I  faith,  the  turning  consciously  to  God,  the  works  of 
I  righteousness,  the  processes  of  conversion  and  pro- 
gressive sanctification.     These  are  the  aftergrowth  ; 
the  seed  was  sown  by  the  Divine  Sower,  and  this  is 
the  harvest.     To  fail  to  see  these  distinctions  is  a 
1  calamity.     It  is  a  fatal  error  to  confuse  God's  great 
sacramental  gift  of  regeneration  with  the  conditions 
required  of  an  adult  who  has  not  yet  come  to  the 
holy  sacrament,  or  with  the  fruits  expected   to  fol- 
low   where   that    prevenient   grace    has    been    shed 
forth  upon  the  soul. 

"Baptismal  regeneration,"  says  Dr.  Pusey,  "as  connected 
with  the  Incarnation  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  gives  a  depth  to 
our  Christian  existence,  an  actualness  to  our  union  with 
Christ,  a  reality  to  our  sonship  to  God,  an  interest  in  the 
presence  of  our  Lord's  glorified  Body  at  God's  right  hand,  a 
joyousness  amid  the  subduing  of  the  flesh,  an  overwhelming- 
ness  to  the  dignity  conferred  on  human  nature,  a  solemnity 
to  the  communion  of  saints,  who  are  the  fulness  of  Him 
who  filleth  all  in  all,  a  substantiality  to  the  indwelling  of 
Christ,  that  to  those  who  retain  this   truth  the  school  which 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  I3I 

abandoned  it  must  needs  appear  to  have  sold  its  birth- 
right." * 

There   is   yet   a   third    gift    to    man   in   this    first  ^ 

sacrament  of  the  Gospel  ;  it  is  that  of  Illumination. 
In  two  well-known  passages  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  the  inspired  writer,  referring  to  the  bap- 
tized, styles  them  the  illuminated. f  The  term  was 
constantly  used  in  the  first  age  of  Christianity. 
Holy  Baptism  was  spoken  of  as  ''  the  illumination," 
and  the  illuminated  were  the  baptized.  The  times 
for  baptism,  and  the  rites  and  ceremonies  connected 
with  its  administration,  suggested  the  same  idea. 
Epiphany,  Easter,  and  Whitsuntide  were  deemed 
the  seasons  fittest  for  the  great  ordinance ;  they 
who  came  to  it  were  clad  in  white  and  carried 
lighted  lamps  or  tapers  in  their  hands.  At  the 
baptism  of  the  younger  Theodosius,  we  are  told, 
there  was  a  splendid  procession  ;  all  wore  white 
and  carried  lights,  so  that  the  street  appeared  to  be 
covered  with  snow,  and  the  stars  seemed  to  have 
left  the  heavens  and  to  be  moving  in  a  flood  of 
radiance  upon  the  earth.  The  name,  the  symbol- 
ism and  ritualism,  the  accessories,  tell  one  clear 
story;  they  place  the  gifts  of  Holy  Baptism  before 

*  "  Tracts  for  the  Times,"  No.  67. 

\  Heb.  vi.  4  ;  x.  32,  (pa)Ti60£yraS,  qiOondOavre?. 


132  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

us  in  another  aspect  ;  they  bear  on  the  trying  ques- 
tion of  reason  and  faith.  We  cannot  for  a  moment 
suppose  that  our  ancient  fathers  were  thus  engaged 
in  childish  play  and  empty  ceremonies  ;  they  meant 
something,  and  by  those  significant  proceedings 
they  declared  a  momentous  truth. 

Light  is  the  medium  of  vision  ;  by  means  of  it 
objects  become  perceptible  to  the  organs  of  sight. 
The  organ  of  sight  and  the  medium  of  vision  are 
not  the  same  ;  eyes  are  of  no  use  without  light;  in 
the  dark  the  most  perfect  eye  sees  nothing.  So, 
then,  light  is  not  the  thing  which  sees,  nor  is  it  the 
object  seen,  but  a  medium,  a  go-between,  a  some- 
what central  between  the  observer  and  the  thinsf 
observed,  but  not  to  be  confused  with  either.  And 
illumination  is  the  act  of  supplying  light  ;  the  shed- 
ding abroad  of  that  by  means  of  which  things  be- 
come visible  which  were  invisible  before.  When, 
therefore,  the  sacred  writers  and  the  primitive 
Christians  called  baptism  illumination,  and  spoke  of 
the  baptized  as  illuminated,  they  expressed  a  pro- 
found truth  in  the  use  of  that  word. 

♦We  discern  between  material  light,  intellectual 
light,  and  spiritual  light.  There  is  the  light  of  this 
world,  with  the  aid  whereof  the  bodily  eye  discerns 
the  material  objects  around  us.     There  is  an  intel- 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  133 

lectual  light,  derived  from  education  and  culture, 
by  which  the  human  reason  and  understanding  sees 
and  apprehends  the  subjects  of  thought.  After 
these  there  is  another  light.  It  is  not  material 
light  ;  it  is  not  the  light  of  reason.  These  avail  in 
the  natural  world  and  in  the  world  of  intellect. 
But  above  these  there  is  a  higher  world  ;  a  world 
inaccessible  to  man  in  his  own  powers;  a  world 
where  things  cannot  be  touched,  investigated,  or 
seen  by  the  eye  of  the  body  or  the  eye  of  the  mind. 
Light  is  needed  before  man  can  make  out  what  is 
there,  or  gain  any  certain  information  concerning 
the  mysteries  and  wonders  of  that  higher  sphere. 
The  light  needed  for  that  purpose  is  the  illumina- 
tion received  in  Holy  Baptism  ;  a  divine  gift  from 
God  to  the  eye  of  the  soul ;  a  medium  of  vision  in 
spiritual  things  by  which  the  spirit  of  man,  which  is 
in  him,  becomes  able  to  see  the  things  of  the  Spirit 
of  God. 

The  parallels  appear  to  be  complete,  the  anal- 
ogies perfect.  As  a  denizen  of  the  material  world 
man  has  the  eye  of  the  body,  and  the  light  whereby 
to  use  it,  and  thus  he  sees,  and  that  is  the  natural 
light.  In  the  intellectual  sphere  man  has  the 
reason,  and  the  subjects  which  are  apt  to  its  powers 
and  within  its  range  ;  but  the  reason   is  useless  till 


134  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

it  be  provided  with  its  proper  light — a  light  derived 
from  training  and  study,  shining  all  about  us  in 
modern  civilization,  demanding  fidelity  to  it,  and 
capable  of  increase  or  diminution,  according  to  the 
right  use  or  the  abuse  of  the  intellectual  powers. 
In  his  relations  to  the  spiritual  world  man  has  the 
reason  and  the  understanding  as  before,  but  now 
he  needs  another  light,  apt  to  study  and  discovery 
in  that  higher  sphere.  Body,  mind,  and  spirit, 
however  perfect  in  themselves,  must  remain  in 
ignorance  of  their  proper  objects,  unless  light  be 
given  to  each  whereby  to  see.  The  eye  may 
be  perfect,  and  yet  absolutely  useless  for  want 
of  natural  light.  The  mind  may  be  acute  and 
clear,  and  yet  a  man  may  live  and  die  in  ignorance, 
for  want  of  knowledge  and  education.  The  spirit, 
though  capable  of  seeing  divine  truth,  and  ac- 
quainting itself  with  God  and  all  holy  mysteries, 
may  remain  in  darkness  and  error,  like  that  of  the 
pagan,  heretic,  and  unbeliever,  because  it  lacks,  or 
has  rejected,  the  illumination  whereby  God  shows 
the  spirit  the  things  concerning  himself.  That 
light  comes  to  us,  not  from  us  ;  it  is  light  from  a 
world  above ;  it  is  shed  abroad  in  the  heart  by 
God  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  it  is  conveyed  to  the  soul, 
together  with   the  remission   of  sin   and  the  gift  of 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  1 35 

regeneration,  in  the  sacrament  ordained  to  that  end 
by  Him  who  said  :  "  I  am  the  Light  of  the  world." 
This  is  the  Cathohc  doctrine  of  Holy  Baptism. 
In  it  man  receives  a  new  spiritual  sense  given  for 
certain  purposes,  for  supernatural  ends.  He  has  the 
material  senses;  the  intellectual  powers;  and  now 
a  spiritual  faculty,  whereby  he  is  able  to  discern 
truths  not  accessible  to  the  senses  in  their  common 
use,  nor  to  the  reason  in  its  proper  action.  He 
is  thus  equipped  for  every  relation  and  every  duty. 
He  can  know  the  world  of  nature,  the  world  of 
thought,  and  the  world  of  grace.  He  is  provided 
with  what  he  needs,  as  tenant  of  many  spheres. 
But  greatest  of  all  these  gifts  is  the  last.  Thereby 
he  sees  what  the  eye  cannot  see,  what  the  ear  can- 
not hear,  what  the  intellect  cannot  comprehend; 
things  beyond  the  reach  of  touch  or  taste  or  visual 
perception  ;  things  more  important  than  aught  else 
to  him  as  heir  of  immortality.  And  in  the  use  of 
this  new  power  he  gains  knowledge  to  be  had  in  no 
other  way;  not  by  experiment,  not  by  argument, 
not  by  logical  demonstration,  but  a  knowledge 
imparted  through  a  light  flashing  in  upon  the  soul 
he  knows  not  how.  This  is  the  double  gift  to  man 
in  the  illumination  at  the  font :  outside,  a  broad 
medium  of  revealed  truth  and  doctrine,  summed  up 


,«>4 


136  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

in  the  Catholic  creed ;  inside,  an  illuminative  gift 
and  spiritual  faculty  enabling  him  to  see  it  and  to 
live  thereby. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  these  faculties 
depend  for  their  maintenance  on  proper  use.  Men 
may  ruin  their  eyes  by  careless  and  improper  exer- 
cise or  neglect ;  they  may  ruin  their  intellectual 
powers  by  abuse  ;  they  may  deprive  themselves  of 
their  spiritual  sight  by  neglect,  self-conceit,  moral 
cowardice,  and  sin.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  observe 
that,  in  the  case  of  adults,  repentance  and  faith  are 
the  conditions  antecedent  to  the  right  recepfion^Df 
lj.,jf^  Ox^  this  holy  sacrament,  and  that  the  gift  to  every  man 
^V  uv '-- .  shall  be  less  or  greater  according  to  his  consci- 
entiousness in  the  use  thereof.  But  it  must  be 
always  remembered  that  the  repentance,  the  faith, 
the  subjective  condition,  are  not  the  baptismal 
,  gift.  That  gift  is  God's;  it  cometh  down  from  the"^ 
Father  of  lights  ;  our  part  is  to  rndce  ready  for  its 
reception  as  well  as  we  can,  and,  having  received, 
to  keep  it  thereafter  safe  from  profanation,  misuse, 
and  loss. 

I  wish  now  to  speak  briefly  about  a  remarkable 
phase  in  the  office  for  the  Ministration  of  Baptism: 
"  Sanctify  this  zvater  to  the  mystical  washing  away 
of  sin!'     The  words  may  recall  to  your  minds  what 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  137 

was  said  in  a  previous  lecture  on  the  relation  of  the 
sacramental  system  to  the  order  of  the  visible  cre- 
ation. And  here  I  wish  I  had  time  to  read  to  you, 
by  way  of  exposition  of  this  part  of  my  subject, 
that  portion  of  Dr.  Pusey's  volume  on  Holy  Bap- 
tism in  which,  in  treating  of  the  w^onder  of  the 
Christian  miracle  and  the  simplicity  of  the  outward 
sign,  he  has  brought  together,  with  marvellous  pa- 
tience and  fulness,  the  instances  in  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  in  which  this  element  of  water 
has  been  used  by  Almighty  God  in  His  dealings 
with  men,  and  the  deductions  of  holy  writers  from 
these  acts  of  divine  Providence.  There  is  a 
wealth,  a  fulness  in  these  illustrations,  of  which 
every  mind  and  heart  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
sacramental  Christianity  must  feel  the  force  and 
beauty.  Beginning  with  that  epoch  of  the  creative 
day  when  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face 
of  the  waters  ;  following  the  course  of  the  four  riv- 
ers which  went  out  of  Eden  ;  we  come  to  the  Old 
Testament  types  :  the  flood  ;  the  wells  of  the  patri- 
archs, which  the  Philistines  stopped  with  earth  ; 
the  well  of  water  shown  to  Hagar ;  the  passage  of 
the  Red  Sea  ;  Elim,  with  its  twelve  wells  and  its 
threescore  and  ten  palm-trees  ;  the  smitten  rock  ; 
the   water   out   of   the   well   of   Bethlehem,   by   the 


138  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

gate ;  the  cleansing  of  Naaman  in  Jordan ;  the 
transit  of  Elijah  through  that  riv^er  on  his  way 
home  to  God.  Then  we  take  up  the  prophecies, 
reading  in  Isaiah  of  the  waters  breaking  out  in  the 
wilderness  and  streams  in  the  desert;"^  in  Ezekiel, 
of  his  vision  of  the  holy  waters  ;  f  in  Zechariah,  of 
the  fountain  opened  to  the  house  of  David  and  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  for  sin  and  for  un- 
cleanness.:]:  And  so  we  pass  through  the  veil  into 
the  days  of  Christ,  and  read  of  the  well  of  Samaria, 
and  the  water  changed  to  wine  at  Cana  of  Galilee, 
and  the  waters  of  baptism  applied  by  John,  the 
forerunner  of  the  Lord,  and  of  the  water  which, 
mingled  with  blood,  flowed  from  the  side  of  Christ. 
The  office  of  the  types  was  a  great  one  ;  they  pre- 
figured the  coming  of  an  hour  when  to  this  element 
of  water  was  to  be  imparted  a  sanctification  which 
should  lift  it  out  of  the  order  of  natural  sub- 
stances and  natural  uses,  and  give  it  a  mystical  and 
miraculous  efficacy.  We  find  in  the  old  liturgies 
the  distinct  recognition  of  this  sanctifying  and  glo- 
rifying of  that  element  which,  however  common 
and  humble,  has  now  acquired  a  more  than  natural 
or  material  force,  being  made  an  instrument  to  join 

*  Isa.  XXXV.  6.  f  Ezek.  xlvii.  1-12. 

X  Zech.  xiii.  i. 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  I  39 

man  to  the  Incarnate  Lord.  The  recognition  of 
this  mysterious  power,  now  imparted  to  it  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  not  an  individual 
opinion  nor  a  fanciful  notion,  nor  a  passage  in  a 
romantic  dream.  It  was  found  in  the  ancient 
Church  ;  it  is  in  every  baptismal  liturgy  of  the  old 
time;  it  was  retained  among  the  Lutheran  bodies 
which  remained  faithful  to  the  ancient  tradition; 
it  is  preserved  among  us  inviolably  by  that  remark- 
able phrase  in  our  office.  And  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  the  thought  of  the  strange  connection 
between  the  work  of  God  in  nature  and  His  work 
in  grace  was  in  the  minds  of  the  fathers,  and  that 
they  found  one  of  the  clearest  illustrations  of  it  in 
the  institution  of  this  holy  sacrament. 

"There  is  in  the  ancient  Church  what  by  moderns  would 
be  condemned  as  realism  or  materialism  or  mysticism.  Their 
view  seems  to  have  been  of  this  sort.  Since  God  had  ap- 
pointed the  use  of  water  for  baptism,  there  must  have  been 
an  appropriateness  in  it  which  there  was  in  no  other  ele- 
ment ;  that  there  was  an  analogy  between  His  physical  and 
moral  creation,  and  that  not  only  imaginative  but  real  ; 
that  in  forming  the  physical,  He  had  respect  also  to  the 
purposes  which  He  designed  in  His  moral  creation,  and  im- 
parted to  the  physical  agent  properties  corresponding  to 
its  moral  uses  ;  that  in  His  earlier  dispensations  He  had 
regard  to  the  latter,   and  not  only  taught  man  beforehand 


140  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

t 

I  what  should  be,  but  in  a  manner,  b)-  employing  His  creature 
in  the  subordinate  office  of  the  former,  imparted  to  it  a  fitness 

'  to  serve  in  the  latter  and  greater.  Something  of  this  sort,  as 
derived  from  the  ancient  Church,  is  acknowledged  by  our 
own,  that  the  baptism  of  our  Lord  '  sanctified  water  to  the 
washing  away  of  sin,'  i.e.,  at  the  least,  our  Lord's  baptism 
in  Jordan  imparted  to  the  whole  element  of  water  a  capac- 
ity of  becoming  the  instrument  of  washing  away  sin,  which, 
apart  from  His  baptism,  it  would  not  have  had."* 

With  a  brief  reference  to  the  opposition  made 
to  the  doctrine  of  Holy  Baptism  as  held  in  the 
CathoHc  Church,  I  shall  bring  this  lecture  to  an 
end.  Why  should  there  be  such  obstinate  resist- 
ance to  a  teaching  so  profound,  so  consoling,  so 
sublime  ?  Why  should  men  substitute  for  it  the 
initiatory-rite  theory,  the  bare-form  notion  ?  How 
shall  we  explain  the  position  of  the  Anabaptist, 
who  insists  on  immersion,  but  denies  any  spiritual 
efficacy  or  sacramental  grace  in  the  rite  ?  What 
shall  be  thought  of  the  disciples  of  the  Gorham 
school,  whose  contention  was,  that  regeneration 
must  occur  before  or  after  baptism,  but  could  not 
^  possibly  occur  at  the  time  of  administration  ? 
These  phenomena  are  merely  instances  of  the 
power  of  the  doctrine  and  the  force  of  the  recoil 

*  "  Pusey  on  Baptism,"'  pp.   286,  2S7. 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  I4I 

from  its  claim  on  reverence  and  faith.  To  allege 
that  God  grants  to  men,  in  an  exterior  rite,  remis- 
sion of  sin,  regeneration,  and  illumination,  is  to 
antagonize  three  classes  of  free-thinkers  on  religion. 
That  baptism  confers  remission  of  sin,  original  and 
actual,  must  be  denied  by  the  Pelagian,  who  thinks 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  original  sin,  and  minimizes 
our  need  of  divine  grace.  That  baptism  is  gener- 
ally necessary  as  a  means  of  grafting  men  into  the 
Body  of  Christ  is  denied  by  the  neo-Pantheist,  who 
holds  that  all  men  are  already  in  Christ,  because 
He  has  taken  on  Him  the  nature  common  to  us  all. 
Finally,  to  say  that  in  Holy  Baptism  a  light  is 
given  to  the  mind  and  spirit,  enabling  us  to  discern 
things  not  to  be  seen  in  our  natural  condition,  is  to 
affront  the  philosophic  Rationalist,  who  relies  on 
reason  alone  for  the  discovery  and  investigation  of 
truth.  A  doctrine  which  thus  deals  its  blow  at  a 
trinity  of  errors  as  old  as  the  human  race  itself,  must 
expect  the  reception  which  it  meets  with  in  the 
Pelagian,  Pantheistic,  and  Rationalistic  schools. 
No  one  imbued  with  the  principles  of  those  schools 
can  say,  sincerely,  and  without  reservation  :  "  I 
ACKNOWLEDGE  ONE  BAPTISM  FOR  THE  REMISSION 
OF   SINS." 

Thirty   years   have   passed   away  since  the  noto- 


142  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

rious  Gorham  controversy  agitated,  or  It  may  almost 
be  said,  convulsed,  the  Church.  The  salutary  effect 
of  the  clearing  of  the  air  and  the  settling  of  the 
mind  of  the  community  on  the  subject  involved, 
has  been  long  perceived  and  is  gratefully  acknowl- 
edged. Since  that  day  other  questions  have  come 
to  the  front,  and  the  minds  of  men  have  been 
drawn  off  in  other  directions.  But  the  doctrine 
which  was  then  successfully  vindicated,  as  being 
unquestionably  that  which  is  taught  in  our  offices, 
has  lost  no  whit  of  its  importance  ;  and  that  great 
sacrament  is  still,  as  always,  the  foundation  of  the 
Church  system,  and  the  bulwark  against  all  here- 
sies, old  and  new\  With  the  passing  of  the  years, 
the  pendulum  swings  back  along  its  arc,  till  now, 
amid  the  din  of  voices,  the  denial  of  sin  and  its 
results,  the  extravagant  laudation  of  humanity,  the 
determined  resistance  to  authority,  and  the  late 
claim  to  the  natural  birthright  of  every  man  to 
identification  with  Christ  as  a  member  of  His  Body, 
without  the  aid  of  rite,  sacrament,  or  instrumental 
means  of  any  sort,  we  have  reached  the  point  at 
which  we  see  plainly  the  necessity  of  reaffirming 
and  maintaining  against  all  comers,  the  old  posi- 
tions regarding  Holy  Baptism  and  its  threefold 
gift  ;  to  the  end  that  men  may  be  brought  within 


HOLY  BAPTISM.  143 

the  covenant  of  grace,  and  that  Christ  may  regain 
His  hold  on  the  multitude  who,  having  no  faith  in 
the  Gospel,  and  no  individual  relation  to  His  Body 
the  Church,  are  as  a  flock  scattered  abroad  upon 
the  mountains,  and  practically  without  Him  in  the 
world. 


V. 

HOLY   COMMUNION. 


LECTURE   V. 

HOLY   COMMUNION. 

If  it  be  deemed  a  task  beyond  the  power  of  man 
to  speak  fully,  in  a  lecture  such  as  this,  of  Holy 
Baptism,  what  can  be  done  when  we  come  to  the 
'greatest  of  all  sacraments?  Who,  indeed,  is  worthy 
to  speak  of  that  Rite  which  has  the  first  claim  on 
love  and  devotion  ;  in  which  are  the  highest  height, 
the  deepest  depth,  the  broadest  breadth;  for  which 
an  adequate  title  w^as  sought  in  vain  by  holy  men  of 
old  ;  which  is  life  and  joy  with  peace  to  them  that 
receive  it  worthily,  but  misery  and  death  to  those 
who  profane  it  ?  On  his  knees  might  one  desire  to 
write  on  this  subject  what  it  should  be  given  him 
to  say. 

For  now^  we  are  come  to  a  strangely  exact  illus- 
tration of  the  function  of  the  Sacramental  System 
as  an  Extension  of  the  Incarnation  ;  this  is  espe- 
cially the  ordinance  w^herein  men,  living  in  Christ, 
are  fed  out  of  the  fulness  of  the  Humanity  now 
borne  by  Him,  and  progressively  fitted  for  the 
heavenly  realm.     For  here  '*  we  spiritually  eat  the 


148  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

flesh  of  Christ  and  drink  His  blood  ;  we  dwell  in 
Christ,  and  Christ  in  us;  we  be  made  one  with 
Christ,  and  Christ  with  us."  And  so,  first,  I  shall 
endeavor  to  show  that  the  Mystery  of  His  Holy  In- 
carnation, from  the  fourfold  point  of  view  in  which  it 
invite-s  our  study,  is  so  reflected  in  this  great  sacra- 
ment, that  terms  apt  to  either  seem  at  once  to  fit 
the  other.  Christ,  present  to  us  by  His  indwelling 
in  the  nature  common  to  us  all,  becomes  present  in 
a  still  more  marvellous  way  in  this  ordinance.  He' 
is  so  realized  to  us  therein,  that  what  is  said  of 
IJira  outside  this  Sacrament  may  be  said,  word  for 
/  word,  of  the  Sacrament  itself.  In  its  relation  to 
Him,  and  in  its  relation  to  us  in  Him,  let  us  proceed 
to  consider  it ;  not  in  a  controversial  temper,  but 
rather  as  citizens  rejoicing  in  the  glory  of  the  king- 
dom, and  counting  the  riches  of  their  inheritance 
among  the  saints.  It  may  be  remarked  in  passing, 
that  the  dreadful  unreality  of  modern  religion,  inac- 
curately styled  Christian,  seems  to  have  come  as  a 
Nemesis  on  unbelief  in  the  Sacramental  Presence  of 
Christ  in  His  Church,  and  on  the  persistence  with 
which  men  contradict  the  words  of  the  Master,  say- 
ing, *'  This  is  not  His  Body,  this  is  not  His  Blood," 
though  He  affirmed  of  each  its  verity  and  its  truth. 
In  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  we   are  brought  to 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  1 49 

the  point  where  the  natural  and  the  supernatural 
come  most  closely  together.  To  the  eye  of  faith, 
the  Christian  Altar  appears  like  a  headland  jutting 
into  a  vast  and  open  sea ;  waves  roll  in  from  the 
eternal  space,  to  strike  upon  the  shores  of  time.  It 
is  a  mirror  of  all  truth,  human  and  divine.  It  has 
a  twofold_aspect,  being  Sacrifice  and  Sacrament  in 
one;  it  is  each  in  turn,  in  complete  and  matchless 
perfection  ;  it  is  the  pure  and  unbloody  Offering, 
the  heavenly  Feast.  It  represents  the  work  of  the 
world's  High  Priest,  now  going  on  above  ;  it  brings 
Him,  verily  and  indeed,  into  our  midst  with  holy 
gifts.  It  is  pictorial,  it  is  practical  ;  a  grand  action 
is  displayed  and  accompanied,  a  work  of  immediate 
necessity  is  carried  on.  As  Christ  stands  at  the 
mercy-seat  on  high,  appearing  before  His  Father  as 
our  Mediator  and  Redeemer,  and  making  interces- 
sion for  us,  so  stands  the  priest  as  His  representative, 
offering  on  earth  the  same  oblation  which  Christ 
offers  in  heaven,  and  sending  up  the  liturgical 
prayer.  Christ  promised  to  feed  men  with  His 
Flesh  and  Blood,  adding,  ''  Whosoever  eateth  My 
Flesh  and  drinketh  My  Blood  hath  everlasting  life, 
and  I  will  raise  him  up   at   the  last  day."  "^     Here, 

*  St.  John,  vi.  54, 


ISO  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

in    Holy  Communion,  He   meets   His  faithful   chil- 
dren  for  that   purpose,  and,  under  forms  selected 
from  the  natural  world,  and  hallowed  and  blessed 
for  a  supernatural   effect,  He  gives  them  what  He 
,  promised.      In  its  double  aspect,  as  sacrifice,  as  sac- 
rament, this  Rite  is  first  in  dignity,  and,  in  power, 
/most  efificient.     Nothing   can    be   set  before  it,  nor 
can  care,  pains,  or  cost  be  too   great   in   realizing  it 
for  all   that   it   is  to   our   devotion  and  faith.     And 
f^^4^  u^,      this,  above  all,  must  we    be   sure    to  hold,  that  it  is 
JZ<^(rZ/ /t^^^^    ourselves    who    make    it    what    it    is;    that    it 
Wv4/v-«^*     is  not  our  subjective  act,  nor  the   moral  fitness  of 
the   recipient,  which  gives  its   reality  to  that   sac- 
rament, and  effects  the  Awful  Presence  of  the  Lord 
therein.     Our  part   is   to  wait  for  the    Holy  Ghost 
till  He  come  ;  and,  when  He  has  blessed  and  sanc- 
tified the  oblation,  to  draw  near  with  faith,  and  take 
the  Body  and  the  Blood,  feeling  that  God  in  Christ 
is   all   in   all,  and  that   it  is   He  who  giveth  us  the 
bread  that  feedeth  unto  everlasting  life. 

Let  us  begin  by  taking  up  that  invaluable  com- 
pendium of  instruction  for  our  children,  which  we 
know  so  well,  and  observe  how,  in  its  simple  yet 
profound  statements  and  distinctions,  the  Catechism 
helps  us  to  take  in  the  idea  of  the  Holy  Commun- 
ion.    You    all    know  that   the   fifth  section  of   the 


HOLY  COMMUNION.  151 

Catechism  was  added  in  1604,  after  the  Hampton 
Court  Conference,  and  that  its  authorship  is  ascribed 
to  Bishop  Overal.  Whoever  it  was  that  gave  it 
to  the  Church,  he  has  a  claim  on  our  gratitude. 
As  to  the  sacrament  of  Holy  Baptism,  two  points 
are  made  ;  there  are  an  outward  visible  sign  or 
form,  and  an  inward  spiritual  grace.  No  hard  ques- 
tion is  raised  as  regards  the  element  of  water  ;  it  is 
indeed  sanctified  to  a  holy  use,  and  it  should  be 
reverently  disposed  of  after  serving  its  purpose ; 
but  there  are  no  vexatious  uncertainties  about  pres-  ' 
ences  and  absences,  substances  and  accidents  ;  it  is 
an  instance  of  the  use  of  an  element  of  the  natural  1 
order  as  an  instrument  whereby,  without  change  in  1 
the  element,  gifts  are  granted  to  the  soul  and  spirif' 
of  man.  gut^when  we  pass  to  the  consideration  of 
the  SacranTeht  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  language 
becomes  more  ample  ;  the  ideas  to  be  presented  are 
more  complex  ;  additional  phrases  are  required,  and 
a  more  detailed  description.  The  elements  now 
used  fix  our  attention,  as  if  some  change  had  passed 
upon,  over,  or  through  them,  by  which  their  posi- 
tion in  the  world  of  the  material  and  physical  had 
been  modified  in  some  wondrous  way.  We  are  told, 
first,  of  an  outward  sign ;  and  such  we  also  saw  in 
baptism.     But   now   and   next   we    are   told    of    an/ 


152  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

inward  part  or  thing  signified;  to  which  nothing  in 
the  account  of  baptism  corresponds.  Finally,  we 
are  told  of  benefits  received  in  the  partaking  of  that 
Holy  Sacrament.  The  description  of  the  second  of 
the  sacraments  of  the  Gospel  differs  specifically 
from  that  of  the  first.  In  the  one  there  is  a  mys- 
tery not  encountered  in  the  other  ;  the  questions 
and  answers  in  the  Catechism  make  this  plain.  No 
Zwin^lian  would  need  three  terms  such  as  we  have 
here  to  convey  his  barren  notion  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion; to  him  they  would  be  embarrassing  and 
useless  verbiage.  But,  to  tell  us  the  mind  of  the 
Church  on  this  sacrament,  these  words  and  distinc- 
tions are  indispensable.  They  suggest  something 
very  strange,  and  very  hard  to  express.  They  pre- 
sent a  mystery  so  startling,  and  so  offensive  to  the 
natural  mind,  that  dispute  has  been  kept  up  inces- 
santly about  it,  ever  since  the  hour  in  which  the 
Lord  announced  it  to  the  Jews  at  Capernaum,  and 
let  them  go,  muttering,  as  they  withdrew,  ''  This  is  a 
hard  saying  :  who  can  hear  it  ?  "  ""^ 

"  Quaenani      est    pars     externa,     seu      sigmiin     Coenae 
Domini  f 

"  Qiiaenam  est  pars  interjia,  sen  res  significata  ? 
"  Quaenam  stmt  beneficia  quae  inde  percipivuis  ?  " 

*  St.  John,  vi.  60,  66. 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  153 

Three  terms  are  to  be  considered :  the  sign, 
signuin ;  the  thing  signified,  res;  the  benefit  re- 
ceived, bcncficia,  or  virtus.  There  was,  undoubt- 
edly, a  motive  in  thus  presenting  the  subject  to 
human  thought.  The  words  were  not  strung  to- 
gether hap-hazard  ;  they  were  adopted  as  involving 
propositions  of  great  interest  and  importance,  and 
as  we  study  these  three  words,  sigmun,  res,  virtus, 
keeping  each  distinct  from  the  rest,  and  noting 
what  would  happen  if  the  perfect  balance  among 
them  should  be  destroyed,  we  find  ourselves  sub- 
stantially going  over  the  ground  traversed  in  our 
study  of  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  the 
relations  of  the  two  natures  in  His  one  Person,  and 
the  heresies  which  for  six  centuries  vexed  the 
Church  ;  indeed,  it  seems  impossible  not  to  be 
deeply  impressed  by  the  correspondence  between 
the  two  subjects. 

First,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  these  three,  the  Sign, 
the  Thing  signified,  and  the  Benefits  conveyed,  are 
distinct  and  diverse  the  one  from  the  other,  so  that 
no  one  can  be  confounded  with  or  substituted  for 
any  other  without  damage  to  a  perfect  symmetry 
in  the  teaching.  The  sacrmnentum  is  not  the  res  ; 
the  res  is  not  the  virtus.  The  sacr amentum  and 
the  res  must  not  be  separated,  neither  must  they 


y. 


154  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

be  confused  ;  the  sacramcntiini  must  not  be  anni- 
hilated by  the  res,  nor  must  the  res  be  thrown 
away  to  keep  the  sacramentiwi.  Nor  yet  should  it 
be  supposed  that  wherever  the  sacrameiitimi  and 
the  res  are,  the  virtus  must  always  be  conferred. 
These  distinctions  are  vital.  We  see  their  bearing 
the  moment  we  place  the  Catholic  Doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  and  the  teaching  of  the  Church  about 
Holy  Communion  side  by  side. 

You  are,  of  course,  familiar  with  the  luminous 
presentation  of  the  subject  of  the  Incarnation  in 
the  5th  Book  of  the  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity  :  " 

"  To  gather,  therefore,  into  one  sum  all  that  hitherto  hath 
been  spoken  touching  this  point,  there  are  but  four  things 
which  concur  to  make  complete  the  whole  state  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  ;  His  Deity,  His  Manhood,  the  conjunction  of 
both,  and  the  distinction  of  the  one  from  the  other  being 
joined  in  one.  Four  principal  heresies  there  are  which  have 
in  those  things  withstood  the  truth  ;  Arians,  by  bending 
themselves  against  the  Deity  of  Christ  ;  Apollinarians,  by 
maiming  and  misinterpreting  that  which  belongeth  to  His 
human  nature  ;  Nestorians,  by  rending  Christ  asunder,  and 
dividing  Him  into  two  persons  ;  the  followers  of  Eutyches,  by 
confounding  in  His  Person  those  natures  which  they  should 
distinguish.  Against  these  there  have  been  four  most  famous 
ancient  general  councils  :  the  Council  of  Nice,  to  define 
against  Arians  ;    against   Apollinarians  the  Council  of  Con- 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  I  55 

stantinople  ;  the  Council  of  Ephesus  against  Nestorians ; 
against  Eutychians  the  Chalcedon  Council.  In  four  words, 
aA?/6GL>?,  r£/lf(»5,  a^iocipirooi,  odvyx^^^^^y  truly,  perfectly, 
indivisibly,  distinctly  ;  the  first  applied  to  His  being  God, 
and  the  second  to  His  being  man  ;  the  third  to  His  being 
of  both  One,  and  the  fourth  to  His  still  continuing  in  that 
One  both  :  we  may  fully,  by  way  of  abridgment,  comprise 
whatsoever  antiquity  hath  at  large  handled  either  in  dec- 
laration of  Christian  belief  or  in  refutation  of  the  aforesaid 
heresies.  Within  the  compass  of  which  four  heads  I  may 
truly  affirm  that  all  heresies  which  touch  but  the  Person  of 
Jesus  Christ,  whether  they  have  risen  in  these  later  days  or  in 
any  age  heretofore,  may  be  with  great  facility  brought  to 
confine  themselves."  * 

These  words  of  the  judicious  Hooker  may  be 
paraphrased,  and  with  the  Hke  precision  may  it  be 
affirmed  that  all  the  heresies  which  have  ever  arisen 
touching  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  are  capable  of 
arrangement  with  reference  to  the  distinction  al- 
ready drawn  concerning  the  signuin,  the  res^  and 
the  virtus.  In  that  sacrament  may  be  noted  what 
corresponds  to  the  Deity  in  Christ,  to  His  Human- 
ity, to  the  perfect  union  of  the  two,  and  to  their 
distinction  the  one  from  the  other.  There  is  a 
teaching  which  impugns  the  truth  of  the  outward 
and  visible    sign  ;    another,   which   takes   away  the 

*  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  Book  V.  liv.  lo. 


156  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

inward  part  or  thing  signified  ;  a  third  which,  while 
it  retains  both,  divides  them  the  one  from  the 
other ;  and  a  fourth,  which  commingles  and  con- 
fuses them.  The  tenet  of  Transubstantiation,  and 
that  of  Consubstantiation  ;  the  notion  of  a  Virtual 
Presence  only,  and  the  idea  that  this  is  but  a 
historical  memorial  of  a  past  and  finished  trans- 
action ;  these  stand  towards  the  Catholic  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Sacrament  somewhat  as  the  heresies 
of  Arianism,  Nestorianism,  Apollinarianism,  and 
Eutychianism  stand  to  the  Catholic  dogma  of  the 
Incarnation. 
\  According  to  Catholic  teaching,  the  sacrament 
considered  in  itself  is  complete,  and,  so  to  speak,  a 
fait  accompli,  as  soon  as  jthe__p.riest__has^  done  his 
part  and  the  Holy  Spirit  has  descended  on  the 
oblations.  The  priest  takes  the  bread  ;  he  breaks 
it  and  lays  his  hand  thereon,  repeating  the  words 
of  institution  ;  he  takes  the  cup,  and,  again  re- 
peating the  words  of  the  Lord,  he  lays  his  hand 
on  it  and  blesses  it  ;  and  then,  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  on  the  official  and  solemn  utter- 
ance of  the  sacred  formula,  the  sacrament  is  there 
before  the  faithful.  Nothing  more  is  needed  to  its 
completeness.  That  completeness  consists  in  the 
union  of  the  outer  and  inner  perfectly  and  without 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  157 

confusion.  The  sigjtiim  remains,  in  its  verity  and 
truth  ;  not  a  shadow  deceptive  to  the  senses,  but  a 
reah'ty  in  the  material  world.  The  res  is  there, 
joined  to  the  sigmun,  for  holy  uses  ;  really  and 
truly  present,  under  the  external  form  ;  for  by  the 
Real  Presence  is  meant,  of  course,  the  presence  of 
the  res.  The  sign  and  the  thing  signified  are  both 
present,  at  once  and  together  ;  jxgt^  as  though  the 
sign  only  were  there,  while  the  thing  signified, 
absent  and  distant,  must  be  realized  to  each  man 
by  his  mental  act  and  conscious  appropriation. 
They  also  abide,  notwithstanding  their  sacramental 
union,  each  true  to  itself ;  not  as  though  the  ele- 
ments had  gone  as  to  their  natural  substance,  and  a 
concrete  or  conglomerate  had  taken  their  place. 
Even  so,  we  assert  that  in  the  mystery  of  the  Holy 
Incarnation  the  Deity  did  not  consume  the  human- 
ity, nor  did  the  humanity  fulfil  the  function  of  a 
mere  representative  and  reminder  of  the  absent 
God  ;  neither  was  the  mystery  made  to  exist  in  the 
transmission  of  grace  from  far  away  ;  nor  yet  was  it 
a  hybrid,  neither  God  altogether  nor  man  alto- 
gether, which  was  beheld  in  Christ. 

I  shall  now  endeavor  to  justify  the  statement 
that  the  leading  errors  on  the  subject  of  this  Holy 
Sacrament  run  on  parallel  lines  with  the  principal 


158  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

heresies  which  assail  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarna- 
tion. In  striving  to  penetrate  what  is  a  profound 
myster}^  men  have  lost  the  mystery  itself ;  they 
have  confused  themselves  and  their  friends  with 
curious  and  vain  distinctions  ;  they  have  robbed 
the  rite  of  its  claim  on  our  faith,  and  reduced  it 
to  the  level  of  intelligible,  or  commonplace,  trans- 
actions. And  first  let  us  consider  the  signum,  and 
note  what  mischief  has  been  done  by  the  theory 
that  the  outward  and  visible  sign  has  substantially 
ceased  to  exist. 

It  is  essential  to  a  sacrament,  as  defined  by  our 
Church,  that  each  part  be  there,  and  that  each  be 
true;  there  is  no  place  for  deception  and  illusion. 
Now  the  truth  of  the  signum  is  denied  by  the  tenet 
of  Transubstantiation. 

"  Transubstantiation  (or  the  change  of  the  substance  of 
bread  and  wine),  in  the  Supper  of  the  Lord,  cannot  be  proved 
by  Holy  Writ  ;  ])ut  is  repugnant  to  the  plain  words  of  Script- 
ure, overthroweth  the  nature  of  a  sacrament,  and  hath  given 
occasion  to  many  superstitions."     (Article  XXVIII.) 

And  therefore  that  tenet  is  rejected  by  our 
branch  of  the  Church;  and  rightly,  for  all  the 
reasons  given.  It  is  not  a  Catholic  doctrine.  Cer- 
tainly it  cannot  be  gathered  from  the  Scriptures, 
nor  from  the  writings  of  the  fathers  of  the  first  six 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  IS9 

hundred  years  of  the  Church.  There  is  a  note- 
worthy fact  concerning  the  statements  of  those 
fathers  on  this  subject.  They  have  been  studied, 
or  rather  ransacked,  with  curious  results.  Roman 
controversiahsts  have  appealed  to  them  for  confir- 
mation of  their  position  that  the  Body  and  Blood 
of  the  Lord  are  really  present  in  the  Eucharist ; 
and  with  complete  success,  for  that  was  unquestion- 
ably the  view  of  antiquity.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
Protestant  controversialists  have  appealed  to  the 
same  fathers,  in  confirmation  of  their  assertion 
that  the  bread  and  wine,  as  to  their  natural  sub- 
stance, continued  unchanged  after  consecration  ; 
and  with  equal  success,  for  a  moderate  acquaint- 
ance with  antiquity  shows  that  the  fathers  held  both 
views,  and  that  many,  even  in  the  Roman  Church, 
were  with  them  down  to  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries.  Holy  Scripture  and  ancient  authors 
teach  the  substantial  permanence  of  the  elements 
of  bread  and  wine  after  consecration.  The  idea  of 
the  annihilation  of  their  substance  overthrows  the 
nature  of  the  sacrament,  by  destroying  the  sigmtni, 
in  its  true  significance  and  verity,  and  taking  it  out 
of  its  place  in  the  world  of  nature  to  which  it 
belongs  ;  the  sign  becomes  a  deceptive  apparition  ; 
it  is  not  what  the  senses  assert  it  to  be;  it  is  what 


l6o  LEiVTEN  LECTURES. 

the   humanity  in  Christ  was  to  the   Docetae,  not  a 
reaHty,  but   a   shadowy,  untrue  phantasm. 

While  men  thus  lose  the  truth  on  one  side, 
others,  in  combating-  that  error,  work  themselves 
into  a  frame  of  mind  in  which  they  cannot  assent 
to  another  most  important  truth  essential  to  a  right 
appreciation  of  the  holy  mystery.  For  though 
the  sign  remains  unchanged  as  to  its  substance,  a 
change  does  certainly  pass  upon  it ;  the  elements 
through  some  mysterious  influence  become  "  holy 
gifts,"  and  forms  under  which  Christ  is  present  ; 
they  undergo  a  change  inexplicable  and  indefina- 
ble ;  a  change  on  the  line  where  material  elements, 
lifted  above  their  natural  uses,  are  made  instru- 
mental to  supernatural  ends ;  a  change  like  that 
which  may  be  expected  when  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  shall  pass  away,  and  there  shall  be  new  heav- 
ens and  a  new  earth.  Such  a  change,  requiring 
no  abdication  of  their  function  by  the  senses,  yet 
stimulating  faith  to  its  highest  point,  is  believed 
in  by  the  devout  Catholic;  and,  in  believing  it,  he 
is  saved  from  a  whirlpool  of  dilemmas,  difficulties, 
and  doubts.  He  need  not  vex  his  soul  with  subtle 
questions  of  substance  and  accident ;  he  need  not 
enter  into  a  hopeless  inquiry  what  the  substance  can 
be  which  goes  completely,  while  extension,  appear- 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  l6l 

ance,  color,  taste,  and  nutritive  properties  remain  ; 
or  whether  that  deserves  the  name  of  substance 
which  stays  or  flits,  exists  or  does  not  exist, 
although  the  element,  as  to  its  natural  character- 
istics, remains  unimpaired  and  unaltered.  He  has 
no  questions  of  that  kind  to  settle,  who,  holding 
that  the  elements  abide  and  remain  in  substantial 
truth,  believes  that  a  mystical  change  has  passed 
on  them,  by  which  they  have  been  lifted  into  a 
higher  sphere  for  nobler  uses  ;  just  as  he  can  con- 
ceive how  nature,  without  being  annihilated,  or 
replaced  by  something  not  itself,  may  be  some  time 
advanced  to  new  conditions,  and  infused  with  new 
powers  and  capacities,  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
good  of  men. 

Next  let  us  consider  the  error  which  denies  the 
truth  of  the  sacrament  on  the  side  of  the  inward 
part  or  thing  signified.  By  the  Real  Presence  is 
meant  the  presence  of  the  res.  But  this,  as  all 
know,  is  denied  under  various  forms  of  objection 
and  by  men  of  divers  sects.  The  flat  denial  of  the 
res  in  the  sacrament  is  the  characteristic  of  Zwin- 
glianism  :  there  is  in  the  Lord's  Supper  a  sign  only, 
used  to  refresh  the  memory  and  stimulate  the 
sympathetic   nature ;    it    is   a   memorial    feast,   and 

nothing  else.     This  error  is  in  its  way  the  same  as 
II 


1 62  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

that  of  the  Socinians,  in  whose  view  Christ  was  a 
man,  and  nothing  but  a  man,  having  no  more  deity 
in  or  about  Him  than  other  men  might  have  who 
walked  with  God  in  their  generation  and  attained 
to  extraordinary  holiness.  Of  this  error  I  repeat 
what  has  been  said  already,  that  it  is  one  with  which 
our  sacramental  offices  cannot  by  any  straining  be 
made  to  square.  From  beginning  to  end,  in  their 
cast,  their  term  of  expression,  their  history,  and 
their  natural  acceptation  they  repudiate,  they  abhor 
the  notion  that  the  Lord's  Supper  was  only  a  repe- 
tition of  the  feasts  previously  partaken  of  by  Him 
and  His  followers  in  Galilee  and  elsewhere,  and 
that  it  was  intended  to  survive  among  us  merely  as 
an  affecting  and  impressive  reminder  of  His  death. 
Zvvinglius  is  the  outlaw  of  Christendom  in  his  atti- 
tude toward  the  sacramental  system,  the  radical  of 
radicals,  the  rationalist  of  rationalists.  His  opin- 
ions, that  the  Eucharist  is  a  bare  commemoration 
of  the  death  of  Christ,  and  that  the  bread  and  wine 
are  mere  symbols  and  tokens  to  remind  us  of  His 
Body  and  Blood,  and  that  Christ  is  present  in  the 
Eucharist  only  by  the  contemplation  of  faith,  are 
directly  opposed  to  Scripture  and  the  general 
opinion  of  the  fathers,  as  has  been  proved  a  thou- 
sand times  over.      His   ideas  were   disapproved  by 


HOLY  COMMUNION.  1 63 

the  Lutherans  and  Calvinists  of  his  own  day ;  they 
are  disapproved  to-day  by  divines  of  the  Protestant 
bodies  around  us. 

"  Zwinglianism,"  says  Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke,  "  is  essentially 
rationalistic  in  the  evil  sense  of  the  word.  Its  chief  effort  is 
to  explain  away  or  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  mystery  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  It  assumes  that  the  theory  which  is  most 
level  to  our  comprehension,  which  brings  the  Holy  Supper 
nearest  to  a  common  meal  where  Christians  have  sweet  fel- 
lowship together,  and  makes  it  agree  most  with  ordinary 
human  experience,  is  for  that  reason  nearest  to  the  truth." 

Dean  Stanley  once  described  this  reformer  as  "the 
clear-headed  and  intrepid  Zwingle."  His  clear- 
headedness was  that  of  a  man  apparently  unable 
to  comprehend  the  Catholic  system,  and  his  in- 
trepidity was  that  of  the  thrower  of  dynamite 
bombs.     He  could  pull  down  ;  he  could  not  build  up. 

"  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,"  says  that  grave  and  learned 
man  Bishop  William  Forbes,  in  his  "Considerationes  Modes- 
tae,"  "that  those  who  have  such  abject  opinions  of  this  most 
august  sacrament  as  these  and  other  modern  innovators,  should 
find  nothing  in  it  which  they  can  wonder  at.  Far  otherwise 
did  the  pious  fathers  think  and  write,  who  were  wont  to  style  it 
'  this  terrible  mystery,'  and  would  never  think  of  so  great  a 
thing  without  a  sacred  and  religious  awe,  viz.,  because  they 
believed  most  firmly  that  he  who  worthily  takes  these  myste- 


164  LENTEiV  LECTURES. 

ries  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  truly  and  really  takes 
into  himself  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  but  in  a  certain 
spiritual,  miraculous,  and  imperceptible  manner.  The  opin- 
ion of  John  Calvin,"  continues  the  writer,  "  is  much  sounder 
and  more  endurable  than  that  of  Zwinglius."  * 

This  is  undoubtedly  true,  and  it  would  be  offen- 
sive and  injurious  to  set  the  teaching  of  Calvin 
and  the  Westminster  Confession  on  the  same  level 
\  with  that  of  the  Swiss  radical.  Theologians  of 
the  higher  school  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
I  our  own  day  assert  with  earnestness  their  belief  in 
I  the  Real  Presence.  They  entertain  a  high  and 
spiritual  idea  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  their  devo- 
tion puts  to  shame  the  carelessness  of  many  among 
us  who  boast  themselves  to  be  unswerving  Catho- 
lics. But  while  we  honor  their  reverent  spirit,  and 
believe  that  they  are  much  nearer  to  the  truth  than 
they  suppose,  we  cannot  but  except  to  their  use  of 
the  term  "  Real  Presence  "  as  descriptive  of  their 
belief.  The  word  which  seems  to  us  most  exactly 
applicable  to  their  error,  as  we  deem  it  to  be,  is 
"  virtiialism  ',''  they  confuse  the  res  and  the  virtus, 
making  them  one  ;  or,  rather,  making  the  virtus  the 
inward  part  and  not  the  res.     In  short,  this  is  the 


*  "  Considerationes  Modestse,"  Vol.  II.   p.   383.     In    Library    of 
Anglo-Catholic  Theology. 


HOLY  COMMUNION.  1 65 

doctrine  not  of  the  Real   Presence  but  of  the  Real 
Absence,  or  the  absence  of  the  res.     And  yet  it  is 
not   absence   in   the   Zwinglian   sense ;  that  system 
rejects  the  res  altogether,  except  in  a  historical  and 
memorial  way.     To  the  virtualist  Christ  is  present,     'pi^  ^  /: 
but   in   virtue,  in    power,  in   a   grace   flowing   forth  ,  ^^  P5f ^ 
from  Him  on  the  reception  of  the  symbols  ;  but  the  j 
body  and  blood,  the  humanity,  remain  as  far  away  I 
as  ever.     To  confound  the  res  and  the  virtus^  as  if  ^ 
they  were  the  same,  is  inevitably  to  exile  and  ban- 
ish the  former.     It  is  much  the  same  as  to  say  of      ^y^v^  (* 
Christ  that  He  is  God  and  man  indeed,  but  God  in  hf^^^r^ 
heaven  only  and  not  here  on  earth  also ;  "  God  with 
us,"  not  as  though  the  tabernacle  of  God  were  now 
with  men,  but  because  He  sends  forth  from  His  dis- 
tant  abode   grace,  help,  and   benediction   to   those 
who  love  Him.     This  appears  to  be  the  idea  of  the 
virtualists,  if  that   term   may  be   applied   to  them. 
Christ  is  not  present ;  but  the  virtue,  strength,  and 
spiritual  power  of  Christ  are  given  to  men  ;  the  body 
and  blood  of  Christ  are  not  present,  nor  are  they  / 
received    in  the   Lord's  Supper ;  but  symbols  only,  '  /J}^ 
which  signify  the  benefits  procured  unto  us  by  the        ^ 
precious  blood-shedding  of   the   Lord,  and  seal  to 
man    the   gifts  of    His   passion   and   death.      This 
theory  we  are  compelled  to  describe  as  that  of  the 


1 66  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

Real  Absence  ;  the  absence  of  the  res  or  thing 
signified  ;  and  it  has  a  strong  attraction  for  those 
who,  while  devout  and  spiritual,  attach  a  great  im- 
portance to  the  exercise  of  the  reason  and  private 
judgment  on  the  subject  of  religion.  The  addiction 
to  rationalistic  methods,  which  is  so  characteristic 
of  the  Protestant  mind,  renders  it  difBcult  for  per- 
sons of  that  class  to  accept  any  doctrine,  unless 
some  kind  of  account  satisfactory  to  the  human 
understanding  can  be  given  ;  the  theory  of  a  virtual 
as  opposed  to  a  real  presence  meets  this  desire.  It 
is  easy  to  think,  that  what  makes  Christ  present  is 
a  man's  own  faith,  rather  than  Christ's  word  ;  that 
He  is  not  in  the  sacrament,  under  the  forms  of 
bread  and  wine,  but  absent,  and  waiting  till  faith 
and  love  invite  Him  to  enter  the  house  of  the  soul; 
and  thus  a  deep  and  precious  spiritual  blessing  is 
expected  in  this  reverend  ordinance,  at  the  price, 
however,  of  an  infinitesimally  small  demand  on  that 
faith  which  believes  when  it  cannot  prove,  and 
accepts  what  is  beyond  our  comprehension.  There 
may  be  great  reverence  and  great  devotion,  where 
this  theory  of  the  Presence  is  held ;  we  do  not 
confound  it  with  naked  Zwinglianism,  nor  fault  it 
as  unspiritual  ;  our  objection  is  this,  that  it  lowers 
the  dignity  of  that  holy  ordinance,  takes  the   mys- 


HOLY  COMMUNION.  1 67 

tcry  from  it,  and  makes  it  little  less  simple  and 
intelligible  than  the  theory  of  the  Memorial  Meal. 
It  is,  in  fact,  an  explanation,  apparently  invented  to 
secure  from  demands  on  faith.  Virtue  is  supposed 
to  descend  from  Christ  in  heaven  to  men  on  earth, 
with  the  speed  and  directness  of  the  electric  current. 
A  spiritual  force,  a  heavenly  power,  evoked  by  our 
faith  and  love,  concentrated  by  our  obedience,  be- 
come operative  at  the  spot  at  which  we  fulfil  the 
command ;  this  is  applied  by  the  Omnipotent 
Spirit.  Such  a  thing  is  at  once  understood  ;  it  is 
easy  to  grasp  ;  it  is  so  easily  grasped,  that  we  feel 
that  it   can   only  be  a  partial  truth. 

Of  the  tenet  of  Consubstantiation,  one  hardly 
knows  what  to  say.  It  is  a  fair  question  whether 
the  Lutherans  really  held  it  ;  it  was  never  accepted 
by  them,  and  certainly  did  not  express  their  opin- 
ion ;  indeed,  there  is  good  reason  for  supposing 
that  the  term  was  invented  by  their  enemies,  with 
the  intention  of  casting  a  reproach  upon  them. 
The  idea  of  a  consubstantiation  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  with  the  substance  of  bread  and 
wine,  so  that  an  indescribable  amalgam  is  the 
result,  is  both  blasphemous  and  absurd.  Reference 
to  it  is  necessary  in  order  to  complete  the  view 
of   the   subject,   but    I    shall   not    impute    so    gross, 


1d8  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

SO  ridiculous  a  notion  to  any  man  until  he  has  dis- 
tinctly stated  that  this  is  what  he  believes. 

Thus  far  of  the  correspondence  between  the  Cath- 
olic doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Eucharist.  Venturing  to  paraphrase 
the  words  of  the  judicious  Hooker,  we  might  say: 

That  there  are  four  things  which  concur  to  make 
the  sacrament  complete  in  itself:  the  Sign,  the 
Thing  signified,  the  Conjunction  of  both,  and  their 
Distinction.  Four  principal  errors  have  withstood 
or  obscured  the  truth:  that  of  Transubstantiation, 
which  denies  the  permanence  of  the  sign  ;  that  of 
Zwinglianism,  which  denies  the  presence  of  the 
thing  signified  ;  that  of  Virtualism,  which  separates 
the  sign  and  the  thing  signified,  so  that  the  thing 
is  really  absent,  and  only  present  in  virtue  and 
effects;  that  of  Consubstantiation,  which  so  con- 
founds the  two  that  neither  retains  its  reality. 
And  to  all  these  errors  we  oppose  the  truth,  which 
accords  with  the  words  of  Holy  Scripture  and  the 
statements  of  the  old  Catholic  fathers  ;  which  re- 
tains the  sign  in  its  substantial  integrity  while 
admitting  in  it  a  mystical  and  spiritual  change  on 
consecration  ;  which  declares  the  real,  true,  object- 
ive presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  under 
the   forms  of    bread    and    wine ;  which    makes    the 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  1 69 

virtus,  the  benefits  of  the  sacrament,  a  result  of 
its  worthy  reception,  and  thus  confers  on  man  the 
fuhiess  of  the  blessing  while  withholding  him  from 
the  presumptuous  claim  that  it  is  his  faith  rather 
than   God's  act  which  brings  to  him  his  Saviour. 

At  the  risk  of  becoming  tedious,  I  must  repeat 
that  the  point  on  which  the  whole  thing  turns  is 
this:  that  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  is  complete 
in  itself  by  the  act  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  through  jthe 
consecrating  priest,  and  that  it  is  so  presented  as  an 
objective  reality  to  the  congregation.  Exhibiting 
the  union  of  a  higher  and  a  lower  part,  each  perfect 
after  its  own  kind,  one  belonging  to  the  natural 
order,  the  other  to  the  supernatural,  it  is  of- 
fered to  men  for  their  edification  and  help.  When 
we  come  to  Holy  Communion  we  draw  near  to 
a  proffered  gift  of  God.  Whatever  we  bring — of 
faith,  of  contrition,  of  the  devotion  of  tears,  or  of 
doubt,  carelessness,  indifference — we  neither  add  to 
nor  detract  from  the  mystery.  It  is  shown  to  men  ; 
they  w^ho  partake  worthily  receive  the  benefits 
offered,  and  they  who  receive  unworthily  eat  and 
drink  to  themselves  condemnation.  That  appears 
to  be  the  simple  construction  of  the  words  of  St. 
Paul  about  the  danger  of  not  discerning  the  Lord's 
body  in   Holy  Communion.     How  can    a    man    be 


I/O  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

punished  for  not  discerning  what  is  not  before  him 
or  present  to  him  at  all?  It  is  hard  to  understand 
how  one  can  be  condemned,  cast  down,  and  blasted 
before  a  Presence  which  has  not  yet  been  realized 
to  him  in  that  sacrament — for  failing  to  discern 
j  what  was  not  there  to  be  discerned.  This  faith, 
that  the  sacrament  is  constituted  by  the  Word  and 
i  Holy  Ghost,  and  not  by  the  inner  act  of  a  human 
\  mind  and  will,  is  the  safeguard  of  sacramental  doc- 
trine from  rationalistic  perversion.  It  has  been 
somewhere  said  by  Mr.  Lccky,  that  of  English 
Christians  they  are  all,  more  or  less,  in  touch  with 
rationalism,  as  if  it  ran  through  all  their  theology; 
and  that  they  can  never  be  satisfied  with  the  Word 
of  God  or  the  decisions  of  the  Church  until  they 
have  submitted  them,  as  critics  and  judges,  to  some 
tests  of  their  own.  However  that  may  be,  it  is 
well  to  know,  in  this  particular  matter,  where  the 
lines  run,  and  that  the  one  view  of  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ment which  contains  the  confutation  of  rationalism 
is  that  of  the  real  objective  Presence.  On  that 
point  only  is  the  issue  squarely  joined  between 
the   rationalist  and  the  Catholic. 

A  few  words  as  to  the  Holy  Sacrament  in  its 
sacrificial  aspect.  It  serves,  and  shall  serve  to  the 
end   of   the   dispensation,    a   twofold  purpose,  as  a 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  1 71 

Memorial,  showing  forth  the  death  of  the  Lord  till 
He  come,  and  as  a  divine  and  comfortable  feast  of 
life.  To  complete  the  subject  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  go  back  to  the  Jewish  times  ;  to  watch  the 
action  of  the  High  Priest  on  the  Day  of  Atone- 
ment, and  to  compare  it  with  that  of  Christ  in  His 
Passion  ;  to  see  Him  offering  the  sacrifice  of  blood 
outside ;  passing  through  the  veil,  disappearing 
from  sight,  and  going  to  the  presence  of  God, 
there  to  offer  the  avails  of  the  sacrifice  and  make 
intercession  for  us.  It  would  be  necessary,  in  the 
next  place,  to  show  the  correspondence  of  the  acts 
of  those  High  Priests  with  the  acts  of  the  Christian 
priest  in  celebrating  the  divine  mysteries,  and  to 
identify  the  action,  in  its  profound  relations,  as  one 
and  the  same  from  age  to  age  in  the  Church  of  the 
redeemed.  But  the  time  does  not  suffice  for  this  ; 
nor  would  that  branch  of  this  subject  be  so  fitly 
considered  here,  where  we  are  tracing  the  connec- 
tion of  the  Sacramental  System  with  the  indwelling 
of  Christ  in  men.  After  the  sacrifice  comes  the 
feast  upon  the  sacrifice,  and  to  this  your  thoughts 
have  been  particularly  invited;  to  this  most  blessed 
ordinance,  the  *'  Esca  Viatorum,"  the  Food  of 
Angels,  wherein  Christ  comes  to  His  faithful,  as 
to  those  who  were  with  Him  on  earth  in  Syria  in 


1/2  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

the  days  of  His  flesh.  What  the  Catholic  Church 
beHeves  is  this,  that  He  is  present  with  us  in  Holy- 
Communion.  Blessed  are  they  that  dwell  in  Thy 
house,  where  the  truth  is  known  and  received  ;  and 
blessed  are  they  who,  having  been  fed  of  Thyself 
on  earth  in  those  holy  mysteries,  shall  eat  bread 
with  Thee  in  the  kingdom  of  God  ! 

I  would  close  this  discussion  w^ith  some  words  of 
peace.  Of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  Archdeacon  Free- 
man says : 

"  It  was  confessedly,  through  long  ages  of  the  Church,  and 
is  by  the  vast  majority  of  the  Christian  world  at  this  hour, 
conceived  to  be  exceedingly  mysterious  throughout  in  its 
nature  and  operation  ;  to  be  no  less,  indeed,  than  the  highest 
line  of  contact  and  region  of  commingling  between  heaven 
and  earth  known  to  us,  or  provided  for  us  ;  a  border  land  of 
mystery  where,  by  gradations  baffling  sight  and  thought,  the 
material  truly  blends  with  the  spiritual  and  the  visible 
shades  off  into  the  unseen  ;  a  thing,  therefore,  which  of  all 
events  or  gifts  in  this  world  most  nearly  answers  to  the  high- 
est aspirations  and  deepest  yearnings  of  our  wonderfully 
compounded  being  ;  while  in  some  ages  and  climes  of  the 
Church  it  has  been  elevated  into  something  yet  more  awful 
and  mysterious.  Such  an  ordinance  as  this — challenging 
such  a  position,  claiming  and  knowm  to  claim  such  powers — 
could  never  fail  at  any  period  to  command  the  attention,  if 
not  the  reverence,  of  thoughtful  humanity.  Drawing  tow^ards 
it  the  longing  vision  and  engaging,  in  measure  or  excess,  the 


HOLY   COMMUNION,  1/3 

faith  and  affections  of  some  ages  and  minds  ;  awakening  the 
jealous  scrutiny  and  experiencing  the  colder  construction,  or 
the  eager  opposition,  of  others  ;  it  would  be  likely  to  give  rise, 
in  ample  measure,  to  the  recorded  feelings  and  judgments  of 
mankind  concerning  it."* 

Bearing  in  mind  the  variations  to  which  our 
author  refers,  we  recall  with  pain  the  fact  that 
tliis  august  and  holy  sacrament,  instituted  by  our 
Lord  to  be  the  sign  of  the  unity  of  His  brethren, 
should  have  become  the  subject  of  contention,  an 
occasion  of  breaches  of  charity,  and  the  cause  of 
suspicion  and  separation.  May  we  not,  however, 
indulge  the  hope  that,  notwithstanding  our  dis- 
putes and  dissensions,  there  is  a  substantial  agree- 
ment in  devotion  to  our  Blessed  Lord,  as  realized, 
reverenced,  or  remembered  in  this  memorial  of 
His  love  for  sinners?  May  we  not  predict  the 
coming  of  a  happy  day  when  men  shall  come  to 
that  holy  ordinance,  not  with  hard  questions  and 
in  a  controversial  temper,  but  with  the  faith  which 
is  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen  and  the  charity 
which  believeth  all  things?  Let  us  ask  whether 
the  Eirenicon  so  greatly  desired  be  not  the  doc- 
trine (as  held  by  the  Catholic  school  in  our 
Anglican  Communion)  of  the  Real,   Spiritual,  Ob- 

*  "Principles  of  Divine  Service,"  Vol.  II.  Introduction. 


174  LENTEN  LECTURES, 

jective  Presence  of  Christ  in  that  Holy  Sacrament? 
Is  there  any  other  view  which  can  harmonize  all 
the  rest  and  remove  so  many  grounds  of  scruple 
and  objection?  The  formula  seems  to  meet  every 
demand,  except  that  of  the  unhappy  men  by 
whom  the  idea  of  mystery  and  sacramental  grace 
is  stiffly  and  absolutely  rejected.  The  Presence 
is  real ;  that  saves  the  thing  signified  :  it  is  a 
Spiritual  Presence  ;  that  bars  out  material  and  car- 
nal conceptions  :  it  is  an  Objective  Presence  ;  that 
defends  us  from  the  notion  that  Christ  is  with  us, 
or  absent,  solely  according  to  the  force  of  some 
mental  act  on  our  part.  We  are  already  ver}^  nigh 
to  those,  on  the  one  side,  who  accept  the  tenet  of 
transubstantiation,  and  to  those,  on  the  other,  who 
believe  only  in  a  virtual  presence.  What  is  it  that 
separates  us  from  these  earnest  believers?  The 
tenet  of  transubstantiation,  erroneous  as  we  deem 
it,  is  very  widely  held  through  Christendom.  It  is  a 
question  whether  transubstantiation,  as  rejected  by 
us,  is  the  same  thing  as  the  transubstantiation  now 
believed  in  by  Latin  and  Greek  Christians ;  whether 
the  difference  in  the  thoughts  of  intelligent  and 
liberal  men  in  the  three  communions  under  consid- 
eration is  not  so  slight  as  to  be  somewhat  hard  to 
define.     Let  us  consider.    On  one  side  it  is  asserted 


HOLY  COMMUNION.  175 

that  the  elements  remain  as  to  their  substance  un- 
changed ;  on  the  other,  it  is  asserted  that  they 
change  in  substance,  while  it  is  conceded  that 
they  remain  unchanged  in  extension,  figure,  appear- 
ance, taste,  and  physical  qualities  and  properties. 
What  then  is  that  substance  of  which  these  things 
are  said  ?  Why  quarrel  about  the  existence  or  non- 
existence of  an  indefinable  somewhat  which  leaves 
the  elements,  in  a  practical  point  of  view,  the  same 
that  they  were?  And  why  is  the  gulf  impassable 
between  those  who  say  that  the  elements  do  not 
change  and  those  who  say  that  whatever  change 
they  undergo  it  does  not  involve  the  five  particulars 
just  mentioned  ?  Is  not  the  point  too  intensely 
refined,  too  metaphysical  for  the  mind  to  grasp? 
And  why  should  not  what  is  admitted  on  each  side 
satisfy  the  other? 

Again :  as  for  those  devout  and  earnest  souls 
who  come  to  the  Lord's  Supper  full  of  faith  and 
love,  as  to  a  holy  ordinance  rich  in  comfort  and 
blessing,  expecting  to  find  help  and  strength,  the 
virtues  and  graces  of  the  Redeemer,  and  a  spiritual 
aid  for  which  they  look  particularly  to  that  Feast, 
what  is  there  between  us  and  them?  Why  need 
they  fear,  as  though  some  dreadful  thing  was  to  be 
forced  on  them  in  our  teaching?     One  thing,  and 


i;^  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

only  one,  appears  to  differentiate  between  their 
faith  and  ours.  We  are  thinking  of  a  Christ  pres- 
ent in  sacramental  sign  and  under  visible  forms ; 
they  are  thinking  of  the  same  Christ  absent,  save  in 
His  omnipresent  Deity.  We  ask  no  hard  thing  of 
them  in  moving  them  to  think  of  the  King  as  here, 
not  there.  We  ask  no  surrender  of  the  function  of 
the  senses  as  verifiers  of  the  truth  of  objects  in  the 
material  world ;  we  do  not  ask  them  to  localize 
the  Saviour,  or  to  think  of  Him  as  inclosed  in  the 
elements  of  bread  and  wine  ;  the  Presence  which 
we  ask  them  to  acknowledge  is  a  spiritual  Pres- 
ence, while  we  tell  them  that  it  is  not  less  true,  not 
less  real,  than  it  was  when  He  dwelt  here  in  the 
days  of  His  flesh,  not  less  near  than  it  was  in  the 
upper  room  where  he  sat  surrounded  by  His  disci- 
ples, and  St.  John  leaned  on  his  bosom.  What 
fuller  joy,  what  better  thing,  than  to  know  that  the 
Saviour  is  thus  among  us,  in  truth,  and  that  the 
tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men? 

And  if  there  be  sensitive  and  anxious  souls  who 
fear  lest,  in  insisting  so  earnestly  on  the  truth  of  the 
elements,  we  may  slip  out  of  harmony  with  the 
mind  of  the  Church  on  this  subject,  we  have  but  to 
remind  them  of  our  faith  that  the  Presence  which 
we  believe  is  objective  first  before  it  becomes  sub- 


HOLY   COMMUNION.  1 77 

jective.  This  keeps  us  off  the  shoal  on  which  so 
many  have  gone  to  wreck,  and  secures  the  due  pay- 
ment of  all  glory  and  honor  to  Him  who  alone 
worketh  great  marvels,  and  maketh  weak  things 
strong.  The  man  who  firmly  holds  the  objective 
Presence  cannot  be  out  of  line  with  the  belief  of  the 
ages  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church 
— that  word  sufficiently  announces  his  position. 

Therefore  we  offer  this  teaching  as  the  Eirenicon 
which  we  seem  to  need  to-day;  in  the  guiet  trust 
that  God  in  His  good  time  will  make  us  to  be  of  one 
mind  in  the  house,  on  this  as  on  other  subjects.  To 
seek  for  points  of  agreement  is  surely  a  better  work 
than  to  dwell,  morbidly  and  gloomily,  on  differences, 
some  of  which  may  be  differences  rather  about  words 
than  things.  We  are  happiest  when  we  labor  for 
peace,  though  it  may  be  that  many  who  hear  there- 
of make  them  ready  to  battle.  Be  it,  day  by  day, 
our  prayer,  for  ourselves  and  all  other  pilgrims  and 
strangers  upon  the  earth  : 

"LET  THY  MERCIFUL  EARS,  O  LORD,  BE  OPEN 
UNTO  OUR  PRAYERS,  AND  ENLIGHTEN  THOU  OUR 
HEARTS  WITH  THE  GRACE  OF  THY  HOLY  SPIRIT, 
THAT  WE  MAY  WORTHILY  APPROACH  THY  HOLY 
MYSTERIES,  AND  LOVE  THEE  WITH  AN  EVERLAST- 
ING  LOVE,  THROUGH   JESUS   CHRIST.      AMEN." 


VI. 

THE    OUTWARD    GLORY   AND   THE 
INWARD   GRACE. 


LECTURE  VI. 

THE  OUTWARD  GLORY  AND  THE  INWARD  GRACE. 

Two  things  remain  to  be  done  before  bringing 
these  lectures  to  a  close.  We  have  traversed  a 
field  of  great  extent,  in  considering  the  Sacra- 
mental System  as  disclosed  in  Nature,  in  man,  and 
in  our  religion.  I  wish  to  say  some  words,  briefly, 
on  its  twofold  manifestation,  externally,  in  the 
worship  of  the  Church,  and  internally,  in  the  life 
of  the  soul,  and  on  the  development  of  the  seed 
sown  therein  unto  life  eternal. 

The  Sacramental  System  rests,  as  we  believe,  on 
a  basis  in  the  natural  world  ;  to  nature,  then,  may 
we  look,  on  nature  may  we  freely  draw,  for  a  supply 
of  whatever  is  necessary  to  convey  to  us,  through 
the  senses,  a  due  apprehension  of  the  meaning  and 
value  of  that  system.  Therefore  it  seems  to  be  of 
the  perpetual  fitness  of  things  that  Religion  should 
be  symbolical  in  form  ;  that  it  should  wear  a  strik- 
ing and  appropriate  garb,  visible  to  the  eye,  and 
expressive  of  the  spirit  within.  Such  is  indeed  the 
fact,  in  the  case  of  every  religion  which  has  proved 


l82  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

its  right  to  the  name  by  the  effects  produced  on 
its  adherents ;  and  the  Catholic  ReHgion  is  the 
most  convincing  and  attractive  instance  of  the  gen- 
eral law.  To  the  solemn  and  beautiful  Ritual  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  your  thoughts  shall  now  be 
directed ;  and  under  that  term  is  included  every- 
thing, small  or  great,  employed  by  way  of  rite,  cere- 
mony, or  symbol,  to  present  to  mankind  the  truth 
revealed  by  the  Father  of  the  universe  and  the 
Ruler  of  their  life.  How  vast  is  this  subject  and 
how  refreshing  to  one  who  is  tired  of  the  noise  of 
the  world  and  the  strife  of  tongues  !  How  satisfy- 
ing to  the  soul  which  loves  the  good,  the  beautiful, 
and  the  true  !  Think  of  the  worship  of  the  Church  ; 
how  deep  the  impress  it  has  stamped  upon  the 
world  ;  how  often  of  old  it  subdued  the  wild  bar- 
barian by  its  awe  and  reverence  ;  how  it  has  melted 
the  hearts  of  those  who  beheld  it  for  the  first  time, 
or,  after  long  absence,  saw  the  solemn  pageantry 
again  ;  how  it  attracts  and  satisfies  the  devout,  trans- 
forms the  fierce  and  cruel,  converts  the  sinner,  and 
seems  to  open  to  the  toilers  in  this  world's  night  a 
gate  into  heaven.  It  is  wonderful  to  note  how  the 
Church,  with  her  ancient  Creed  and  her  equally 
ancient  liturgical  Use — in  essentials  the  same  all 
the  world  through — has   held   her  place,   surviving 


OUTWARD   GLORY  AND   INWARD   GRACE.     1 83 

every  empire  of  the  earth,  outliving  assaults,  falsify- 
ing each  prediction  of  failure,  and  chanting  her  "  De 
Profiuidis'''  over  the  graves  of  the  enemies  by 
whom  she  has  been  assailed  from  generation  to 
generation  !  Nay,  even  when,  under  pressure  and 
perhaps  inadvertently,  men  have  rejected  and  flung 
away  their  birthright  in  that  grand  traditional  sys- 
tem of  faith  and  worship,  we  fail  not  to  find  them 
growing  more  and  more  restless  and  uneasy,  while 
trying' to  recover,  if  not  the  substance,  at  least  the 
shadow  of  what  once  was  theirs.  It  is,  indeed,  a 
touching  sight  to  behold  the  children  whose  fathers 
repudiated  the  old  and  venerable  forms  of  Christian 
worship,  now  groping  their  way  back  to  the  place 
of  parting,  to  see  if  anything,  and  if  so,  what, 
could  be  recovered  where  so  much  was  thrown 
away.  What  a  wonderful  story  is  told,  by  compar- 
ing the  New  England  meeting-house  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago — that  depressing,  barn-like 
structure,  four-square,  painted  white,  and  having  no 
semblance  of  a  house  of  God — with  one  of  those 
magnificent  edifices,  built  in  correct  ecclesiastical 
style  and  externally  faultless,  in  which  the  descend- 
ants of  the  ancient  Puritans  now  assemble  for  their 
Sunday  devotions !  The  principle  on  which  sym- 
bolical and  liturgical  religion  rests  is  deeply  rooted 


I  84  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

in  human  nature ;  it  is  an  instinct,  a  demand, 
implying  universal  need.  The  science  of  Christian 
Liturgies,  based  on  those  needs  of  mankind,  stands 
eminent  among  all  sciences  ;  rich  in  material,  con- 
genial, attractive,  satisfying.  In  Christianity,  when 
sincerely  and  simply  taught,  will  inevitably  be  found 
that  quality  referred  to  by  John  Mason  Neale,  in 
his  preface  to  his  translation  of  Durandus,  which 
he  calls  Sacramentality.  Types  of  Christianity 
occur,  no  doubt,  in  which  this  element  seems  want- 
ing; but  are  they  not  corruptions  of  our  religion? 
may  they  not  be  described  as  cases  of  emasculated 
or  desiccated  Christianity  ?  True  Christianity  can- 
not be  false  to  the  general  postulate  on  which 
religion  is  built ;  to  the  nature  of  man,  to  the  design 
of  God  in  making  us  what  we  are,  to  the  drift  of 
history  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  this 
day.  The  Sacramental  System  can  'be  traced  in 
the  heavens  above  and  in  the  earth  beneath,  in  the 
Incarnate  Word,  and  in  ourselves  ;  the  science  of 
Christian  symbolism  is  its  inseparable  attendant  ; 
from  pole  to  pole,  and  from  the  one  sea  to  the 
other,  it  proclaims  the  unity  of  the  works  of  God 
in  nature  and  in  grace. 

By  an  ineradicable  instinct,  by  a  sense  of  fitness, 
and  by  a  sensible  need,  men  seek  and  find — what- 


OUTWARD   GLORY  AND  INWARD    GRACE.     1 85 

ever  their  religion — some  means  of  giving  outward 
expression  to  their  faith.  Let  them  beheve  what 
they  will,  be  it  right  or  wrong,  false  or  true,  they 
must  announce  it  in  visible  sign  or  act.  The  more 
they  believe,  the  more  free  will  be  their  use  of  ritual 
and  symbolical  helps;  the  purer  their  faith,  the  more 
noble  and  affecting  its  expression.  Conversely,  as 
men  lose  their  hold  on  a  world  beyond  this,  believ- 
ing less  and  less,  the  more  dry  and  dull  must  their 
worship  become,  till,  when  they  reach  the  end,  and 
believe  nothing,  acts  of  worship  cease,  because  the 
motive  to  worship  exists  no  more.  I  repeat  it :  all 
nations,  people,  and  languages,  without  exception, 
so  far  as  they  have  had  any  religion,  have  felt  the 
need  of  means  to  convey  religious  ideas  to  them- 
selves and  to  others.  God,  in  choosing  a  people  as 
His  own,  and  making  them  His  agents  in  keeping 
the  light  aflame  in  the  darkness  of  the  earth,  insti- 
tuted a  full,  minute,  and  splendid  ritual  system  as 
an  adjunct  to  that  work.  The  Holy  Church  through- 
out the  world,  heir  of  the  elder  branch  of  the 
family,  followed  the  indication  of  the  Divine  Will. 
For  the  "  Origines  Liturgic^e  "  we  go  back  to  those 
days  when  the  worship  of  the  synagogue  expanded 
into  that  of  the  Christian  assemblies.  What  we  now 
possess  and  enjoy  may  be  traced  to  norms  in  the 


1 86  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

sub-apostolic  age.  The  utmost  importance  attaches 
to  these  things;  they  make  for  help  and  encourage- 
ment, for  accuracy  in  teaching,  for  precision  in 
thought,  for  conservation  of  dogma,  for  edification 
of  believers,  for  signs  to  faith,  for  reminders  of  duty, 
for  object  lessons  in  divine  knowledge,  for  comfort 
and  consolation  in  a  world  of  care.  Even  the  con- 
flicts which  have  raged  from  time  to  time,  and  often 
with  mob-fury  and  frenzy  of  fanatics,  about  the 
Ritual  Question,  attest  its  importance  in  the  eye  of 
mankind.  We  may  count  on  a  general  consent  to 
the  proposition  that  Symbolism  is  valuable  only  for 
what  it  expresses,  and  that  a  ritual  which  means 
nothing  is  not  worth  keeping  up.  The  men  who  built 
and  decorated  the  great  cathedrals,  and  developed 
in  them  the  full  glory  of  worship,  did  so,  not  for 
amusement  or  for  the  gratification  of  a  dry  and  self- 
ish sestheticism,  but  under  an  impulse  which  com- 
pelled them  to  make  their  loyalty  and  devotion 
known  to  the  world,  and  to  give  due  expression  to 
the  truths  to  which  they  were  devoted,  heart  and 
soul;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  who,  roaring  in 
the  midst  of  the  congregations,  set  fire  to  the  holy 
places,  brake  down  the  carved  work  thereof  with 
axes  and  hammers,  and  defiled  the  dwelling-place  of 
God's  Name,  did  so  under  the  impression  that  they 


OUTWARD    GLORY  AND   INWARD   GRACE.      187 

were  doing  Him  service  as  reformers  of  abuses  and 
exterminators  of  falsehood  and  error.  On  each  side, 
by  friend  and  foe  alike,  is  witness  borne  to  the 
power  of  ritual  and  its  influence  on  the  people. "^^ 

Let  us  think  of  this  matter,  first,  from  what  may 
be  termed  an  a  priori  point  of  view,  and  then  in 
some  of  its  historical  and  practical  aspects. 

Two  things  seem  so  clear  that  they  need  no  argu- 
ment to  prove  their  truth  ;  it  is  impossible  to  state 
the  articles  of  any  religion  without  the  use  of  dog- 
matic terms;  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  keep  a  sys- 
tem of  doctrine  intact  without  the  help  of  symbols 
apt  to  represent  and  teach  it. 

"  As  thought  cannot  be  expressed  without  language,  or 
some  outward  sign  and  representation,  either  in  science  or 
religion,  so  it  is  an  absolute  necessity  to  employ  signs,  words, 
or  symbols,  to  embody  and  teach  the  facts  of  both.     If  the 

*  Even  Auguste  Comte,  having  swept  away  the  Christian  rehgion, 
and  substituted  for  it  his  system  of  philosophy,  was  fain  to  invent 
and  contrive  a  religion  and  a  ritual  to  match  his  new  discoveries  ;  he 
has  his  church,  his  hierarchy,  and  his  pontiff  ;  his  mimicry  of  ecclesi- 
astical rites  and  institutions,  and  his  travesty  of  the  Christian  sacra- 
ments. We  also  learn  that  the  recent  school  of  sceptics,  who  march 
under  the  name  and  invocation  of  "Robert  Elsmere,"  have  set  up  a 
church  in  London,  wherein  they  carry  on  some  kind  of  worship,  the 
Lord  knows  what,  after  their  own  peculiar  ideas.  So  even  the  most 
extreme  among  the  enemies  of  the  Faith  attest  the  power  of  the 
principle  which  underlies  our  ritual  and  liturgical  service  of  the 
True  God. 


158  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

mathematician  cannot  do  without  his  signs  and  formulce,  or 
the  merchant  without  his  figures  and  secret  marks,  so  the 
religion  of  all  antiquity  could  not  do  without  its  symbols.  And 
it  is  difficult  to  know  how  any  religion  can  be  preserved  in  its 
purity  and  integrity  without  symbols  or  exact  and  uniform 
expressions  of  truth,  from  which  there  shall  be  no  variation. 
It  is  possible  that,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  with  the  increase  of 
wealth  and  luxury  and  the  usual  degeneracy  of  morals  and 
decay  of  pure  religion  consequent  upon  such  a  state  of 
things,  the  first  symbols  of  a  people  might  come  to  lose  their 
significance  or  influence,  and  others  of  a  more  debased  char- 
acter be  added  to  the  list.  And  it  is  further  possible  that  all 
symbols  might  be  taken  for  the  things  or  gods  which  they 
represented,  at  least  among  the  ignorant  and  depraved,  and 
among  all  such  as  were  incapable  of  abstract  thought,  or 
were  more  under  the  influences  of  the  senses  than  of  faith  or 
reason.  But  how  to  have  a  religion  and  worship  for  a  people 
at  large,  without  some  kind  of  external  form  and  expression,  or 
how  to  preserve  and  transmit  such  religion  and  worship  with- 
out symbols  and  records,  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  say."  * 

The  use  of  Symbolism  is  coeval  with  the  human 
race ;  it  is  a  result  of  the  constitution  of  man's 
nature  ;  the  desire,  the  need,  are  implanted  in  the 
heart  from  the  very  beginning.f  Divine  truth  is 
presented  to  man  as  a  whole,  and  not  to  one  depart- 

*  "Monumental  Christianity,  or  the  Art  and  Symbolism  of  the 
Primitive  Church  ns  Witnesses  and  Teachers  of  the  One  Catholic 
Faith  and  Practice."     By  John  P.  Lundy,  p.  4. 

f  See  C.  O.  Tvliiller,  quoted  by  Dr.  T.undy,  pp.  23,  24. 


OUTWARD   GLORY  AND   INWARD   GRACE.      1 89 

ment  or  function  of  his  nature  only;  it  has  to  do 
with  us  as  we  are,  complete  in  body,  soul,  and 
spirit ;  every  part  is  concerned  in  and  affected  by 
what  God  makes  known.  And  therefore,  unless 
religion  has  a  visible,  audible,  palpable  side,  it  can- 
not meet  the  entire  man,  much  less  the  whole 
human  brotherhood.  Men  need  no  commandment 
on  that  point  ;  nature  tells  them  what  must  be 
done;  and  just  as  soon  as  they  perceive  the  exist- 
ence of  an  object  of  worship,  they  seek  and  find 
a  symbolical  method  of  rendering  homage;  some 
sign,  some  form,  is  instantly  appropriated  to  that 
purpose.  On  the  instincts  of  humanity,  on  needs 
universally  felt  and  admitted,  rests  the  Liturgical 
system  of  the  Church ;  nay,  it  is  thus  also  with 
every  system  of  worship  at  any  time  or  in  any  place 
used  among  men. 

But  symbolism  is  not  only  indispensable  to  the 
expression  of  the  faith,  it  is  equally  necessary  to 
its  preservation.  Our  thoughts  are  unstable  and 
changeful ;  they  are  not  an  unerring  guide  ;  left  to 
ourselves,  without  safeguard  or  check,  we  cannot  be 
trusted  from  day  to  day  ;  ''  the  Lord  knoweth  the 
thoughts  of  man  that  they  are  vain."  '^'      To  steady 

*  Ps.  xciv.  II. 


1 90  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

them,  we  need  visibles  which  endure.  It  would  be 
tiresome  to  quote  the  ''  scgiijus  irritant  "  of  the  bard 
of  the  Sabine  farm  ;  you  know  the  Hues,  perhaps,  by- 
heart  ;  and  j^ou  know  that  the  words  are  true.  The 
vahie  of  Ritual  consists  in  its  aptness  to  teach,  and 
its  ability  to  preserve  and  transmit  what  it  teaches. 
A  ritual  which  means  nothing  is  an  anomaly,  the 
melancholy  shadow  of  something  dead  and  gone. 
A  meagre  and  defective  ritual  is  helpless  to  prevent 
variation  in  doctrine.  Truth  may  be  held  for  a 
while,  without  this  aid  to  our  weakness,  but  not  for 
long.  Men  of  powerful  intellect  and  strong  convic- 
tions have  now  and  then  declined  the  help  of  rite 
and  symbol,  and  set  at  naught  whatever  makes  for 
exterior  reverence  and  beauty  in  religion  ;  but  their 
temporary  success  was  due  to  the  movement  of  the 
tide  of  controversy  ;  as  the  combative  spirit  lost 
power,  and  quietness  and  calm  returned,  disinte- 
gration in  thought  and  belief  followed.  Reformers, 
inspired  by  a  supreme  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
some  pet  tenet,  or  a  sense  of  responsibility  and  im- 
portance as  guardians  of  a  favorite  line  of  doctrine, 
may  go  on  for  a  time  without  the  aid  of  those  ad- 
juncts which  in  general  are  necessary  for  the  defence 
and  maintenance  of  religion  ;  but  when  the  early 
zeal   dies   out,  with  the  impulse  which   it  gave,  the 


OUTWARD    GLORY  AND   INWARD    GRACE,      igi 

descent  into  indifference  is  accelerated  by  the  re- 
moval of  the  brakes  from  the  wheel.  And  so  with 
the  Catholic  Religion.  While  in  its  ritual  and  sym- 
bolism there  is  no  value  whatever  apart  from  the 
truths  which  they  enshrine  and  disclose  in  their 
characteristic  way,  it  is  impossible  to  see  how  that 
religion  could  be  kept  up  in  the  world  without 
their  help ;  as  matter  of  experience,  it  has  not 
been  kept  up  where  the  old  and  suitable  forms 
and  rites  have  been  discarded.  The  Symbol,  de- 
voutly and  intelligently  used,  becomes  an  agent 
in  strengthening  our  intellectual  apprehension 
Attitudes  expressive  of  awe  and  reverence  devel- 
op those  feelings,  and  become  secondary  causes 
thereof.  Many  persons  say:  "I  make  this  sign, 
I  use  that  ceremony,  because  I  need  them  ;  if  I 
did  not,  I  might  lose  my  faith."  And  they  are 
right  in  their  statement  of  the  case ;  for  we  are 
imitative  beings  ;  we  are  helped  by  what  we  see  ; 
under  the  law  of  association,  conduct  and  opinion 
are  invariably  influenced  by  acts,  sights,  sounds, 
subjected  to  the  senses,  and  carrying  an  impression 
to  the  mind  and  heart.  Many  have  owed  their  con- 
version to  the  eye  and  the  ear,  engaged  by  some 
symbolical  presentment  of  a  vital  truth,  who  would 
have  been  deaf  to  the  most  forcible  appeal  to  the 


192  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

i  logical  faculty  ;  and  this  because  they  were  men  ;  not 
'  spirit  and  mind  only,  but  body  and  senses  also ;  and 
:  because  idealism  was  not  adequate  to  their  need. 
How  solemnly  and  earnestly  is  the  case  presented 
by  the  apostle  in  describing  how  the  human  race 
was  brought  to  the  right  knowledge  of  God  Him- 
self !  ''  That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  which 
we  have  heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have 
handled,  of  the  Word  of  Life,  that  declare  we 
unto  you."  ^  God  did  not  reveal  Himself  to  ab- 
stract thought  ;  nor  is  the  knowledge  of  Him  and 
our  relation  to  Him  derivable  from  abstract  thought. 
He  came  among  us,  and  was  seen  and  heard  in  the 
visible  form  of  that  human  nature  in  which  He 
dwelt ;  now  we  still  see  Him,  in  the  religion  of 
Sacramentality  and  Symbolism,  which  do  for  us 
what  sight  and  touch  and  hearing  did  for  those 
who  were  near  Him   in  the   days  of  His  flesh. 

In  accordance  with  these  principles,  the  Catholic 
Church  has  presented,  and  still  presents,  the  truth, 
through  her  solemn  and  beautiful  ritual,  to  man- 
kind. We  believe,  we  must  believe,  we  cannot  but 
believe,  in    the  truth   and  reality  of    what    is    con- 

*  I  St.  John.  i.  I,  2. 


OUTWARD    GLORY  AND   INWARD    GRACE.     I93 

stantly  spoken  of  as  the  worship  of  nature.  We 
gladly  adopt  the  term,  and  assign  to  it  a  practical 
value ;  not  using  it  as  a  rhetorical  phrase  but  as  the 
statement  of  a  fact.  The  heavens  declare  the  glory 
of  God."^  The  stars  had  a  voice  in  the  morning  of 
the  world, f  and  still  the  entire  firmament  speaks 
His  praise.  Nature,  through  all  her  realms,  knows 
how  to  express  the  gratitude  and  joy  which  come 
of  existence  according  to  her  Creator's  will.  Could 
we  but  see  beneath  the  surface,  we  should,  no 
doubt,  find  in  everything  that  hath  breath  a  power 
to  praise  the  Lord  :j;  and  a  good  will  thereto  ;  if  we 
could  hear  better  than  we  do  with  these  gross  ears 
of  ours,  we  should,  no  doubt,  receive  the  harmonies 
of  a  grand  anthem  of  gladness  perpetually  sung  to 
God,  through  kingdom  after  kingdom  of  His  worlds. 
Now  the  worship  of  the  Catholic  Church  was  meant 
to  be,  and  is,  a  response  to  this  inarticulate  and — 
to  us,  but  only  to  us — inaudible  action  of  worship  ;  § 
and  whatever  of  breadth,  of  splendor,  of  impressive- 
ness,  of  melody  are  in  the  Versicle  should  appear  in 
the    Respond.     The  worship   of  nature  is    like    an 

*  Psalm  xix.  i.  f  Job,  xxxviii.  7.  \  Psalm  cl.  6. 

§  For  some  very  interesting  and  valuable  thoughts  and  statements 
on   what   has   been   called  superhuman  vision    and    the  rhythmical 
movement  in  Nature,  see  Canon  MacColl's  "Christianity  in  Rela- 
tion to  Science  and  Morals,"  pp.  222-236. 
13 


194  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

Antiphon,  given  out,  full  and  clear,  through  earth 
and  sky  and  sea  ;  and  then  the  psalm  is  taken  up, 
with  that  Antiphon  for  its  suggestive  inspiration, 
and  it  rolls  forth  from  the  temples  of  the  Lord, 
wherein  He  dwells,  and  its  sound  goes  out  into  all 
lands.  Why  should  not  His  worship  be  as  rich,  as 
magnificent,  as  it  can  be  made?  Why  should  there 
not  go  into  it  as  much  of  beauty,  majesty,  and 
refined  culture  as  faithful  souls  and  ardent  minds 
and  reverent  and  devoted  spirits  can  contribute  for 
an  oblation  to  the  Lord?  What  else  can  it  be  but 
visible  and  symbolical  ?  We  have  seen  that  the 
whole  system  of  the  created  universe  is  sacramental 
in  its  cast;  that  the  sacramental  principle  is  trace- 
able everywhere  in  nature  ;  that  under  visible 
\  forms  spiritual  and  moral  truths  are  made  known 
ito  intelligent  inhabitants  of  the  world.  So  the 
whole  material  universe  becomes  tributary  to  God's 
Church,  the  constituted  teacher  of  the  nations,  the 
witness  and  keeper  of  the  truth.  Since  God  has 
been  pleased  to  appropriate  certain  elements  of 
this  world,  and  in  particular  the  element  of  water, 
the  flour  of  wheat,  the  juice  of  the  grape,  the  oil  of 
the  olive,  and,  sanctifying  them  to  spiritual  and 
supernatural  uses,  has  lifted  them  to  an  unheard-of 
honor,  is  it  not  meet  and   right  that  nature   should 


OUTWARD   GLORY  AND  INWARD    GRACE.      1 95 

continue  to  contribute  her  choicest  treasures  for 
oblation  in  those  places  in  which  her  own  has  thus 
already  been  glorified?  The  rock  of  the  mountain 
side,  the  trees  of  the  forest  ;  frond  and  flower,  the 
glory  of  Lebanon,  the  fir  tree,  the  pine  tree,  and 
the  box  together  ;  the  gold,  the  silver,  the  precious 
stones  ;  the  products  of  the  loom  ;  color,  lights, 
sweet  sounds,  all  kinds  of  music ;  nay,  everything 
whereby  God  can  be  praised  and  gratitude  can  be 
expressed,  and  everything  apt  to  carry  a  meaning 
or  present  a  truth,  is  here  in  place.  That  is  a 
healthful  instinct  which  bids  us  make  our  churches 
as  beautiful  as  we  can  and  our  ritual  attractive  and 
impressive.  It  helps  us  to  realize  that  God  is  one 
in  nature  and  in  the  Church.  It  is  a  fatal  error  to 
divorce  the  worship  of  God  in  nature  and  the  wor- 
ship of  God  in  the  Church  as  if  they  had  nothing  in 
common  ;  for  if  His  worship  in  our  Christian  assem- 
blies be  allowed  to  sink  into  something  so  cold,  so 
bald,  so  dull,  so  lifeless  as  we  often  see  it,  why 
should  not  men  turn  away  from  that  unworthy  and 
unsatisfying  routine  and  get  them  to  the  open  air, 
crying:  "  Give  me  the  light,  the  color,  the  music; 
give  me  the  blue  of  the  sky,  the  brilliance  of  the 
flovv'ers,  the  softness  of  the  green  sward  ;  the  reflec- 
tion of  the  clouds  in  lake  and  stream,  the  songs  and 


196  LENTEN  LECTURES, 

carols  of  the  birds;  these  lift  my  soul,  these  warm 
my  heart,  these  realize  God  to  me  as  He  never 
could  be  realized  within  four  whitewashed  walls,  in 
prosy,  unreal  talk,  in  discordant  droning  of  unmu- 
sical verse  ;  the  worship  of  nature  is  more  true  to 
the  ideal  than  what  you  ask  me  to  offer  in  your 
synagogue  or  auditorium."  Let  it  ever  be  in  your 
thoughts,  this  alliance  between  the  ritual  of  nature 
and  the  ritual  of  Holy  Church.  Let  us  welcome 
the  idea  of  the  offering  of  her  best,  by  nature,  to 
the  promotion  of  the  greater  glory  of  the  Lord, 
and  of  our  duty  to  accept  that  gift  in  good  faith. 
It  is  of  the  fitness  of  things  that  this  should  be  so  ; 
it  is  the  expression  of  our  conviction  of  the  unity 
of  God's  works  in  nature  and  in  grace  ;  it  is  our 
protest  against  the  spirit  which  thinks  that  we  do 
honor  to  God  by  making  His  worship  mean,  slov- 
enly, and  contemptible.  In  fact,  the  whole  system 
of  ritual  splendor  and  magnificence  lies  in  germ  in 
the  institution  of  the  two  sacraments  as  necessary 
to  salvation.  The  Church  has  responded  to  a  sug- 
gestion which  it  was  impossible  to  misunderstand. 
She  has  invested  the  simple  act  of  baptism,  the 
simple  acts  of  breaking  bread  and  blessing  a  cup, 
with  a  rich  abundance  of  symbolical  ceremonies, 
in  order  to  stamp  more  deeply  on  the  minds  of  her 


OUTWARD    GLORY  AND  INWARD   GRACE.     I97 

children  the  ideas  connected  with  those  sacra- 
ments, the  truths  which  they  enshrine,  the  benefits 
which  they  apply  ;  she  shows  forth,  by  every 
agency  adapted  to  the  purpose,  the  exalted  nature 
of  our  first  grafting  into  Christ,  the  indescribable 
mystery  of  growth  upward  into  Him  and  into 
eternal  life,  by  feeding  on  His  flesh  and  blood. 
These  adjuncts  are  not  essential  to  the  validity  of 
the  sacraments,  but  they  have  a  use  and  a  fitness 
which  place  them  beyond  legitimate  objection."^ 

But  it  is  said  that  these  things  are  for  the  vulgar 
only,  and  that  men  of  a  high  order  of  intelligence 
do  not  need  them.  We  are  not  careful  to  reply 
to  that  ancient,  ill-tempered  slur.  What  are  con- 
temptuously called  the  vulgar  constitute,  in  point 
of  fact,  the  great  mass  of  mankind.  To  the  poor 
the  gospel  was  preached  ;  "  to  this  man  will  I  look, 
saith  the  Lord,  even  to  him  that  is  poor  and  of 
a  contrite  spirit  and  trembleth  at  my  word."  f 
Religion  is  for  such  as  these,  first  of  all  ;  not  for  a 
coterie  of  self-opinionated  philosophers,  nor  for  any 
man,  whosoever  he  be,  who  walks  in  pride  of  intel- 
lect or  heart ;  and  against  the  appeal  of  the  poor  in 
spirit,  and  the  unerring  instinct  of  the  mass  of  man- 

*  See  Moehler's  "  Symbolism,"  vol.  i.  p.  311. 
f  Isa.  Ixvi.  2. 


198  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

kind,  rationalistic  objections  avail  not.  The  ration- 
alist may  deny,  he  cannot  affirm ;  he  may  pull 
down,  he  cannot  build  up  ;  he  never  can  invent  a 
religion  which  will  meet  the  want  of  the  race.  Our 
argument  against  that  cold  idealism  which  makes 
men  iconoclasts  is  justified  by  common  sense,  and 
even  more  strongly  by  experience.  *'  To  confine 
^u  i^  ^  ©'»«l/religion  entirely  to  spirituals,"  says  an  old  author, 
/v:.  .  <'  may  perhaps  have  been  the  attempt  of  well-mean- 
ing men,  but  certainly  of  bad  philosophers.  They 
were  unacquainted  with  human  nature,  and  did  not 
foresee  that  their  attempt  must  terminate  in  perfect 
Quietism."  As  little  do  they  perceive  who  throw 
away  the  Christian  ritual  and  yet  hope  to  keep 
Christian  dogma,  that  the  loss  of  the  former 
involves  the  loss  of  the  latter,  and  that  he  who  dis- 
cards the  sign  will  ultimately  be  forced  to  part  with 
the  thing  signified. 

It  was  not  without  the  highest  authority  that 
the  Church  of  the  latter  days  developed  her  ritual 
system.  Almighty  God  was  the  author  of  that 
order  which  preceded  it,  and  out  of  which  it  grew. 
His  directions  were  comprehensive  and  minute,  and 
the  result  was  impressive  and  magnificent.  Enough 
may  be  gathered  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  and 
from   external  testimony   to   show  that  the  service 


AX  (. 


OUTWARD    GLORY  AND  INWARD   GRACE.      1 99 

of  the  ancient  Church  must  have  been  stately  and 
profoundly  impressive.  To  that,  as  to  a  norm, 
they  looked,  who  had  the  ordering  of  Christian 
worship.  Their  reliance  on  symbolism,  their  appre- 
ciation of  the  fine  arts  in  their  various  branches, 
are  evident  from  the  beginning.  The  pictures  and 
symbols  in  the  Catacombs,  the  palm  branch,  the 
Agnus  Dei,  the  fish,  the  cross,  are  instances  of  the 
desire  to  give  visible  expression  to  faith.  That 
Christian  worship  was,  from  the  first,  liturgical  will 
only  be  denied  by  those  who  are  influenced  by  a 
strong  distaste  for  it.  That  the  Christian  converts 
began  to  adorn  and  decorate  their  places  of  wor- 
ship as  soon  as  they  were  relieved  from  the  fear  of 
persecution,  is  matter  of  history.  More  and  more 
beautiful,  more  and  more  rich  and  splendid  became 
the  order  of  their  worship,  till  it  attained  a  cul- 
mination in  the  ages  when  the  great  cathedrals  of 
the  world  were  built.  Glorious  things,  indeed,  are 
spoken  of  thee,  thou  city  of  God  ! 

Take  the  cathedral  idea,  as  it  lived  in  the  mind 
of  the  men  of  old  and  was  partially  realized  by  their 
hands,  and  consider  if  anything  be  lacking  to  make 
it  the  most  splendid  conception  of  holy  symbolism. 
Let  us  imagine  ourselves  before  one  of  those  superb 
objects  which    constitute    the  admiration   and    the 


200  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

despair  of  our  colder  and  less  religious  day.  Here 
stands  the  sacred  pile,  every  square  foot  teaching  a 
lesson  and  expressing  a  truth ;  addressing  intellect, 
heart,  and  senses  together;  showing  man  the  glory 
of  God,  the  mystery  of  his  own  being,  the  wonders 
of  time  and  eternity.  The  western  front  faces  a 
storm-swept  world,  as  a  barrier  of  rock  the  angry 
sea ;  figures  of  Archangel  and  Angel,  Apostles, 
Saints,  and  Warriors  seem  to  repel  the  powers  of 
darkness ;  grotesque  shapes  here  and  there  suggest 
the  strange,  incongruous  elements  so  warded  off 
lest  they  might  disturb  the  peace  of  the  Holy  City. 
The  western  towers  represent  the  Apostolic  Ministry, 
firm  and  unshaken.  The  portals,  enriched  with  leaf, 
flower,  and  fruit,  and  deeply  cusped  and  shafted, 
welcome  the  approaching  pilgrim,  whom  sweet  and 
peaceful  countenances  also  regard  as  he  draws  nigh. 
He  sees  the  long  sweep  of  the  wall  and  roof  line, 
the  transepts,  the  flying  buttresses,  throwing  their 
arms  across  the  sky;  and  there,  above,  the  spire 
rises,  and  melts  away  into  the  air,  catching  the  first 
rays  of  the  morning  light,  flushed  by  the  sunset,  and 
holding  up  the  everlasting  cross  amidst  the  stars  of 
night.  Enter,  and  hushed  now  be  soul  and  heart,  for 
we  are  in  another  world.  Who  does  not  know  the 
impression    produced    on    first  standing  inside   the 


OUTWARD    GLORY  AND   INWARD   GRACE.     201 

great  cathedral  doors?  There  are  the  calm  of  the 
deep  green  woods,  the  "  stillness  of  the  central 
sea."  The  arcades  of  the  forest  are  before  us;  piers 
and  columns  stand  to  the  right  and  left,  like  the 
monarchs  of  the  grove ;  above  is  the  roof  for  a  sky; 
pictures,  mosaics,  colors,  rainbow  hues,  make  it  *'  all 
glorious  within."  And  then,  the  holy  of  holies 
beyond  ! 

"Such  trembling  joy  the  soul  o'erawes, 
As  nearer  to  Thy  shrine  she  draws : 
And  now  before  the  choir  we  pause. 

"  From  each  carved  nook  and  fretted  bend, 
Cornice  and  gallery  seem  to  send 
Tones  that  with  seraph  hymns  might  blend. 

"Three  solemn  parts  together  twine 
In  harmony's  mysterious  line, 
Three  solemn  aisles  approach  the  shrine."  * 

Lesser  altars,  each  with  its  ornaments,  catch  the 
eye,  but  it  rests,  finally,  upon  the  central  throne  of 
the  Presence  of  our  Lord.  And  now,  it  may  be, 
while  eyes  are  full,  and  heart  as  though  it  could 
hold  no  more,  shall  come  the  sound  of  music,  which, 
rolling  in  deep  diapason,  fills  the  air  ;  and  chants  are 
heard  like  the  voices  of  eternity  and  the  songs  of  the 

*  "Christian  Year  :  "  Trinity  Sunday. 


202  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

New  Jerusalem  ;  and  forth,  in  procession,  with  cross 
and  banner,  with  cope  and  shining  vestment,  come 
figures,  which  approach,  and  ascend  the  grades  of 
the  choir  and  the  altar  steps,  and  show  forth  The 
Death,  till  He  come,  and  make  solemn  memorial  of 
His  Passion,  interceding  for  the  sins  of  the  world, 
praying  for  "the  whole  state  of  Christ's  Church 
militant."  This  is  the  culmination,  the  triumph  of 
Sacramentality  and  Symbolism;  true  to  our  nature; 
perfectly  adapted  to  the  law  of  our  constitution  ; 
precious,  not  in  itself  nor  for  itself  alone,  but  for 
the  things  which  it  teaches  and  for  those  spiritual 
realities  which  it  thus  presents  to  the  understanding 
and  the  faith. 

Bryant,  in  his  "  Thanatopsis,"  represents  the  uni- 
verse as  ministering  to  man  in  his  death  : 

"The  hills, 
Rock-ribbed  and  ancient  as  the  sun — the  vales 
Stretching  in  pensive  quietness  between  ; 
The  venerable  woods  ;  rivers  that  move 
In  majesty,  and  the  complaining  brooks 
That  make  the  meadows  green  ;  and  poured  round  all 
Old  ocean's  gray  and  melancholy  waste, 
Are  but  the  solemn  decorations  all 
Of  the  great  tomb  of  man." 

The  thought  of  the  poet,  exquisitely  though  it  be 


OUTWARD    GLORY  AND   INWARD    GRACE.     203 

disclosed,  is  depressing.  There  is  another  side  to 
this  ;  we  may  think  of  nature  in  another  way  ;  we 
may  reahze  her  as  ministering  to  us  in  our  hfe,  as 
coming  to  us  in  shining  garments  rather  than  in 
mourning  weeds;  as  chanting  meanwhile  a^Sursum 
Corda  "  rather  than  a  ''Requiem  ^ternam."  Life, 
not  death,  is  the  message  of  the  Gospel ;  beauty,  not 
ugliness,  the  vesture  of  the  King's  Daughter  ;  light, 
not  darkness,  the  boon  of  nature  to  believing  souls  ; 
and  the  rays  derived  from  her  mysterious  shrine 
may  better  be  used  to  kindle  the  sanctuary  lamp 
before  the  altar,  than  to  touch  to  flame  the  candles 
which  flicker  beside  the  trestles  of  the  dead. 

When,  under  some  sinister  influence  or  some 
wrong  guidance,  men,  rejecting  all  this  glory  and 
beauty,  turn  away  to  their  own  devices,  they  leave 
things  which  belong  to  their  peace.  They  go  into 
a  chilly  air,  they  begin  a  long  descent  ;  they  lose, 
in  losing  the  sign,  those  things  which  it  signifies, 
the  help  which  the  symbol  was  intended  to  give. 
Less  and  less  shall  they  know  about  worship  ;  more 
and  more  hard  and  intellectual  shall  become  their 
religion;  the  sanctities  of  the  altar  service  shall  be 
replaced  by  the  attraction  of  listening  to  a  set  dis- 
course ;  the  gratification  of  the  ear,  the  exercise  of 
the   critical   faculty  on   some   favorite   orator's   elo- 


204  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

quent  efforts,  shall  become  the  prominent  motives 
to  draw  them  to  the  place  of  meeting.  Slowly,  and 
step  by  step,  come  changes  in  this  declining  prog- 
ress ;  men  bow  no  longer  at  the  Sacred  Name ; 
they  kneel  no  longer;  they  sit,  to  praise,  to  pray; 
the  more  bare  the  edifice,  the  better  it  seems  to  its 
purpose  ;  there  is  no  font,  no  altar,  no  organ  ;  there 
is  no  belief  in  regeneration  or  the  real  presence; 
there  is  no  priesthood  ;  there  is  no  garb  for  ofificiant ; 
there  is  no  authority  but  that  of  private  judgmicnt 
and  individual  taste.  So  proceeds  the  evolution  ; 
and  still,  beyond,  to  more  barren  forms,  when  we 
come  to  the  frigid  silence  of  Quietists,  who  sit  wait- 
ing for  the  Spirit  to  move  them,  and  discard  every 
external  in  religion.  There  is  no  farther  step,  save 
that  of  imperturbable  agnosticism  ;  which,  when  we 
reach,  we  are  at  the  frigid  pole,  where  the  Solemn 
Ritual  of  the  Catholic  Church  is  replaced  by  an 
inarticulate  cry  addressed,  none  knows  to  what. 
True  to  theory  and  close  to  fact  is  the  picture 
drawn  by  Mr.  Mallock,  of  the  logical  end  of  the 
rejection  of  the  symbolism  of  the  sacramental 
Church.  Paul  will  instruct  Virginia  in  the  solemn 
and  unspeakably  significant  worship  of  the  Positiv- 
ism, which  admits  no  God,  no  soul,  no  supernatural 
order,  and,  above  all,   no  hell.     He  will   show  her 


OUTWARD   GLORY  AND   INWARD   GRACE.     20$ 

what  true  religion  and  true  worship  are  ;  he  has  an 
audible  and  a  reasonable  liturgy  which  gives  utter- 
ance to  the  religion  of  exact  thought. 

'"Let  us  both  join  our  voices,'  he  says,  'and  let  us  croon 
at  the  moon.'  The  professor  at  once  began  a  long,  low  howl- 
ing.    Virginia  joined  him  until  she  was  out  of  breath. 

"'Oh,  Paul,' she  said  at  last,  'is  this  more  rational  than 
the  Lord's  Prayer  ?  ' 

"  'Yes,'  said  the  professor,  '  for  we  can  analyze  and  com- 
prehend that  ;  but  true  religious  feeling,  as  Professor  Tyndall 
tells  us,  we  can  neither  analyze  nor  comprehend.  See  how 
big  nature  is,  and  how  little — ah,  how  little  ! — we  know 
about  it.  Is  it  not  solemn,  and  sublime,  and  awful  ?  Come, 
let  us  howl  again.' 

"The  professor's  devotional  fervor  grew  every  moment. 
At  last  he  put  his  hand  to  his  mouth,  and  began  hooting  like 
an  owl,  till  it  seemed  that  all  the  island  echoed  to  him."  * 

"  He  gave  them  their  desire,  and  sent 
leanness  withal  into  their  soul." 


We  have  long  since  passed  the  point  at  which 
the  return  to  the  old  ways  in  our  branch  of  the 
Church  excited  anger  and  provoked  to  iconoclastic 
rioting.       The    Oxford    Movement    began    by    the 

*  "The  New  Paul  and  Virginia,    or  Positivism  on  an    Island," 
by  W.   H.    Mallock,  pp.   124-129. 


206  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

recovery  of  doctrine  and  dogma,  obscured  and  all 
but  lost  in  the  age  of  latitudinarian  and  Protestant 
error;  the  ritual  revival  followed  as  its  legitimate 
fruit.  In  some  points  it  is  open  to  criticism;  we 
may  regret,  perhaps  deplore,  the  line  taken  in  the 
development  in  certain  directions  ;  but  whatever 
mistakes  have  been  made,  the  general  course  has 
been  right  and  true.  John  Mason  Neale's  predic- 
tion, in  his  spirit-stirring  lines,  ^'  The  Good  Old 
Times  of  England,"  has  been  fulfilled  to  the 
letter,"^  and  each  day  widens  the  range  of  that 
victorious  progress.  Meanwhile,  the  work  within 
our  own  borders  has  the  sympathy  and  approval  of 
multitudes  of  friends  and  lovers  of  God,  in  other 
folds  than  ours,  who  are  following  as  fast  as  could 
be  expected  in  the  path  on  which  w^e  are  pioneers. 
And  often,  watching  these  things,  do  men  bow  the 
head,  and  give  God  thanks  for  the  day  when  the 
beauty  and  the  glory  are  thus  coming  back,  as  if 
they  could  hear,  in  the  air  about  them,  the  cadence 
of  the  prophet's  words  : 

"  Et  aedificabbnt  deserta  a  seculo  et  ruinas  antiquas  eri- 
gent,  et  instaurabunt  civitates  desertas,  dissipatas  in  genera- 
tionem  et  generationem,"  f 

*  "  Hierologus,"  ch.  IV,  pp    101-103.  f  Isa.  Ixi.  4. 


OUTWARD    GLORY  AND   INWARD    GRACE.     20/ 

Only  let  this  be  said  by  way  of  cautel.  What 
we  most  need,  everywhere,  to-day,  is  reahty  in  re- 
ligion ;  and  yet,  so  strangely  is  temptation  fitted 
to  human  weakness,  that  without  suspecting  it  we 
may  be  powerfully  drawn  to  unreality  and  untruth, 
like  those  wdio  pursue  a  phantom  and  grasp  at  a 
shadow.  It  is  a  distinct  temptation  to  have  and  to 
use  things,  without  attaching  a  meaning  to  them  ; 
to  retain  creeds,  and  yet  to  put  on  the  words  what- 
ever sense  we  please;  to  have  forms,  but  to  disclaim 
what  they  naturally  convey  to  the  eye  and  the  ear; 
to  use  a  ritual,  but  at  the  same  time  to  say  that  it 
is  without  doctrinal  signification.  That  is  the  in- 
stant danger  of  the  hour;  against  that  we  must  be 
ever  on  the  watch  ;  it  is  Satan's  masterpiece  to  take 
what  ought  to  make  for  stronger  faith,  deeper  rev- 
erence, and  more  sensible  apprehension  of  things 
unseen  and  invisible,  and,  having  extracted  the 
kernel  and  marrowy  to  leave  us  an  empty  shell,  a 
worthless  husk.  Unreality  in  religion  makes  unreal- 
ity in  the  daily  life;  God  forbid  that  we  be  involved 
in  the  downfall  to  which  it  leads  !  God  forbid  that 
any  one  of  us  be  found  saying,  or  saying  Amen 
to,  prayers  with  which  the  conscience  does  not  go 
along;  reciting  the  Creed,  yet  inwardly  muttering, 
"  I  do  not  really  mean  it ;  "  making  vows  of  obedi- 


208  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

ence  and  conformity,  with  a  mental  reservation; 
bowing  the  knee  in  the  house  of  God,  yet  saying 
secretly,  "  I  do  not  believe  in  this,"  or  "  I  do  this 
only  because  I  find  it  becoming,  attractive,  aesthetic." 
Better  no  religion  than  one  which  amounts  to  no 
more  than  a  hollow  form,  a  piece  of  decorative 
art,  a  cerement  wrapped  around  the  bones  of  a 
dead  faith.  Better  no  vows,  than  vows  which  a 
man  intends  to  keep  only  so  long  as  his  views  re- 
main the  same  ;  better  no  plight  of  troth  in  mar- 
riage than  one  which  is  to  stand  good  only  till  some 
new  love  supplants  the  old  ;  better  no  words  than 
words  twisted  into  a  falsehood  and  a  lie  ;  better  no 
rites  than  rites  which  mean  nothing. 

And  this  leads  me  to  my  last  word  on  the  sub- 
ject which  has  so  long  engaged  our  thoughts  :  the 
Sacramental  System  finds  its  inward  manifestatio'i 
in  the  life  of  the  soul.  Here  we  pass  from  symbols 
to  what  they  signify,  from  the  visible  to  the  invis- 
ible; we  enter  a  region  of  tender,  shadowed,  solemn 
thoughts,  of  personal  experiences,  of  contacts  with 
the  spiritual  world,  where  one  walks  trembling  yet 
joyful  in  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

For  it  is  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  Lord  and  Life 
Giver,  who  acts  on  us  through  externals,  to  renew 
and    restore    the   Divine    Image   within    us  and  to 


OUTWARD   GLORY  AND   INWARD   GRACE,     209 

make  us  meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance  of 
the  saints.  We  hear  of  Christ  so  constantly,  He  is 
so  perpetually  talked  about,  that  it  reminds  us  of 
His  own  prediction:  '' They  shall  say,  Lo,  here  is 
Christ;  or,  Lo,  He  is  there;  behold,  He  is  in  the 
deserts,  or  He  is  in  the  secret  places."  "^  There  be 
false  Christs,  and  false  prophets  ;  almost  as  many 
Christs  as  there  are  persons  who  prate  of  Him  and 
pretend  to  have  fathomed  the  mystery  of  His 
being.  His  person,  and  His  acts.  But  still,  Christ 
is  all  in  all;  and  to  live  His  life  and  to  have  His 
image  reflected  in  the  heart  is  the  conclusion  of  the 
whole  matter.  For  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  we 
must  trust  to  close  study  of  such  representation  of 
Him  as  we  have ;  His  portrait  is  painted  for  us  in 
many  a  psalm  of  the  Old  Testament,  in  many  a 
prophecy ;  in  His  own  Beatitudes,  in  words  of 
Evangelist  and  Apostle ;  it  is  a  picture  of  One  who 
is  with  God,  and  in  God,  truly  man  also,  humble, 
lowly,  long-suffering,  meek ;  poor  in  spirit,  never 
doubting,  never  disputatious;  leading  a  life  divine, 
yet  folded  around  in  human  garb,  in  perfect  sym- 
pathy with  everything  that  lives  ;  known  to  the 
spirits    of   the    lost,   fenced    around    by   legions   of 


*  St.  Matt.  xxiv.  23,  26. 
14 


210  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

angels,  familiar  with  the  marvels  of  the  invisible 
realm.  It  must  be  pronounced  impossible  to  re- 
produce even  any  faint  likeness  of  this  consummate 
life,  this  superhuman  character,  unless  the  spirit  of 
self-trust  and  self-will  be  laid  aside;  unless  a  man 
be  clothed  on  with  deep  humility  ;  unless  he  be 
imbued  with  ideas  and  impressions  derived  from 
faith  in  the  invisible  ;  unless  he  desires  that  which 
God  doth  promise  ;  unless  the  saints  and  the  angels 
and  the  spiritual  world  are  as  real  to  him  as  the 
tenants  of  the  world  in  which  we  now  live.  It  can- 
not be  demanded  of  the  rationalist,  the  agnostic, 
the  sceptic,  that  they  should  turn  out  of  their  work- 
shop an  image  absolutely  foreign  to  their  concep- 
tion of  what  man  should  be.  An  invincible  faith 
in  things  unseen  ;  a  realization  of  the  supernitural 
realm  with  its  marvellous  contents  ;  a  constant 
tending  towards  God,  in  holding  out  the  hand  for 
Him,  feeling  after  Him,  seeking  to  be  where  He  is, 
sure  of  nothing  where  He  is  not  discerned,  these 
are  the  factors  of  the  re-creation  in  Christ,  and 
these  are  in  vital  harmony  and  accord  with  the 
system  displayed  under  holy  sacraments  and  sym- 
bols apt  to  the  work  of  the  training  of  the  soul,  the 
renewal  of  the  heart.  The  Christian  dispensation, 
to  judge   of    it    from   its    description    in    the    Holy 


OUTWARD   GLORY  AND   INWARD   GRACE.     211 

Gospels  and  the  New  Testament  writings,  was  in- 
tended to  do  a  specific  work  among  us.  It  was 
designed  to  act  on  the  heart,  to  form  a  peculiar 
character,  and  to  develop  certain  tendencies  in 
man  ;  to  convince  him  of  his  own  littleness  and  of 
the  greatness  of  God  ;  to  bring  him  to  God  in  per- 
fect self-renunciation,  and  to  make  him  very  calm 
and  strong  in  a  strength  not  his  by  nature,  nor  in 
any  way  his  own.  The  result,  where  the  system 
has  its  way  untrammelled,  is  that,  to  the  disciple  so 
instructed,  the  whole  world  becomes  instinct  with 
solemn  mysteries  and  full  of  things  divine  ;  life  is, 
in  its  experiences,  a  continual  lesson  in  the  deal- 
ings of  our  merciful  Lord  with  us  ;  things  about  us 
are  more  than  they  seem  to  be  ;  visible  objects 
stand  for  invisibles ;  there  are  meanings  in  every 
department  of  nature  which  the  natural  eye  cannot 
take  in  ;  dreams,  signs,  visions,  omens  are  not  to  be 
despised;  stars  and  flowers  and  mountains,  rivers, 
lakes,  the  ancient  hills,  the  wide  and  wandering 
sea,  all  have,  in  truth  and  reality,  a  voice  for  the 
soul ;  the  year  has  its  divisions,  the  day  its  hours, 
through  which  the  mystery  of  redemption  is  con- 
tinually repeated  ;  every  duty  rests  on  a  law  of  the 
God  of  righteousness,  every  action  should  be  done 
to    His   glory,  every   work    begun,   continued,  and 


212  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

ended  in  Him.  Under  this  tuition  men  acquire  a 
readiness  to  admit  the  inexplicable,  to  credit  the 
'y  I  '  ^  improbable,  to  believe — as  St.  Augustine  expressed 
it  in  his  noted  paradox — the  impossible.  They  are 
not  confined  within  the  bound  of  flesh  and  sense  ; 
they  do  not  starve  on  the  thin  scrannel  straw  of 
Positivism ;  they  are  prepared  for  things  most  mar- 
vellous, most  unaccountable;  they  apprehend  an 
unfathomable  mystery  in  their  own  life  ;  they  walk 
ringed  about  with  mystery — not  such  mystery  as 
leads  to  helpless,  abject  surrender  of  intellectual 
effort  to  sound  it,  but  a  mystery  to  which  they 
know  they  have  a  key  ;  everything  that  occurs  has 
its  meaning ;  everything  works  together  for  their 
good  ;  the  beyond  is  far  more  real  than  the  present; 
the  Bible  is  a  wonder  book  in  which  every  recorded 
miracle  is  gladly  accepted  ;  prayer  has  its  answer ; 
God  is  present ;  in  the  holy  places  He  meets  them 
and  they  are  with  Him  ;  angels  and  ministers  of 
grace  surround  them  ;  departed  souls  commune 
with  them  ;  all  live  to  God.  They  know  that  the 
human  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  that 
I  it  contains  a  germ  of  the  spiritual   body  that  is  to 

be ;  they  know  that  the  whole  creation  is  interested 
in  the  destiny  of  man  and  is  looking  for  the  adop- 
tion, the   redemption,  of  the  body.     Such  are  the 


OUTWARD   GLORY  AND   INWARD   GRACE.     21 3 

convictions  of  the  men  of  faith,  and  how  can  they 
be  strengthened  and  confirmed  so  surely  as  under 
that  system  of  which  we  have  been  meditating  in 
these  Lenten  studies?  Where  faith  is  at  a  mini- 
mum, and  reverence  for  the  supernatural  is  deemed 
superstition,  it  must  be  impossible  to  develop  such 
a  character  and  spirit  as  have  been  now  hurriedly 
sketched.  Where  it  exists  it  will  stamp  its  special 
mark  on  the  form,  the  manner,  and  the  features, 
according  to  the  sincerity  of  its  reception  and  the 
completeness  of  its  rule.  To  what  extent  soever 
the  Catholic  religion  acts  upon  us,  to  that  extent  it 
must  transform  us  ;  if  there  be  much  of  our  own 
native  infirmity  and  imperfection,  its  influence  will 
be  apparently  diminished  ;  if  we  give  ourselves  up 
to  it  without  reserve  and  without  fear,  men  will 
perceive  the  fact  and  confess  that  the  unseen 
powers  are  with  us  of  a  truth  ;  if  we  have  made 
slow  and  very  little  progress  here,  we  shall  have 
the  more  to  learn  in  that  future  state  where  our 
education  is  to  be  continued  ;  if  we  have  advanced 
rapidly  in  this  lower  school,  the  entrance  shall  be 
abundant  into  the  courts  above.  The  visible  im- 
press of  holiness  is  the  presage  of  immortality,  the 
sign  of  the  life  with  Christ  in  God,  the  assurance  of 
a  resurrection  in  the  new  and  glorious  body  which 


214  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

is  to  be  man's  heavenly  dress.  More  of  these 
things  shall  we  know  as  faith  comes  back  ;  that 
faith  which  is  the  substance  of  our  dreams,  the 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  our  convictions  ;  which  is 
an  anchor  of  the  soul  thrown  into  that  within  the 
veil  and  holding  us  fast  to  our  moorings  ;  which 
leads  men  to  renounce  the  world,  to  despise  its 
promises  and  defy  its  power,  to  seek  those  things 
which  are  above,  where  Christ  sitteth  at  the  right 
hand  of  God.  Come,  Holy  Ghost,  and  lift  the 
covering  spread  on  the  face  of  unbelief  and  lead  us 
safely  to  those  blessed  seats,  where  we  shall  see 
face  to  face ;  where  the  signs  and  symbols  now 
used  shall  be  exchanged  for  the  substance  and 
reality,  wherein  shall  be  no  further  change  forever 
and  ever. 
"And  I  SAW  no  temple  there.    And  they 

NEED   NO    candle,    NEITHER  LIGHT    OF    THE   SUN  ; 

FOR  THE  Lord  God  giveth  them  light,  and 

THEY   shall   reign   FOR   EVER  AND    EVER." 


APPENDED    NOTES. 


APPENDED  NOTES, 


NOTE   I.     (See  page  24.) 

Dr.  Pusey  has  a  sermon  on  the  subject  of  the 
sympathy  of  nature  with  man  in  his  sorrow  and 
pain.  (See  Parochial  Sermons,  Vol.  11.  Sermon 
XVII.,  "Groans  of  Unrenewed  and  Renewed 
Nature;"  Rom.  viii.  22,23.)  The  reader  may  be 
glad  to  have  the  following  extract  from  that  won- 
derful discourse  : 

"Such,  then,  is  the  first  sense  of  this  great  and  mysterious 
passage,  that  all  nature,  having  suffered  together,  shall  be 
restored  together.  Things  animate  and  inanimate,  as  being 
the  works  of  God  (as  we  see  in  the  use  of  Holy  Scripture  and 
even  in  the  very  works  themselves),  bear  in  themselves  some 
likeness  to  their  Maker,  and  traces  of  His  hands.  Things 
seen  speak  of  things  unseen.  How  does  the  bright  gladden- 
ing glow  of  light  speak  of  the  purity  of  Light  inapproachable  ; 
that  one  may  not  scan  it  with  too  bold  a  gaze  ;  how  it  warms, 
heals,  lightens,  directs,  penetrates,  transfigures  into  itself, 
gladdens  our  inmost  souls.  And  yet  all  around  us  and  in  us 
bear  also  sad  tokens  of  the  fall.  As  then  to  us  death  is  to  be 
the  gate  of  immortality  and  glory,  so  in  some  way  to  them. 
Whence  Holy  Scripture  says  elsewhere,  'the  earth  shall  wax 
old  like  a  garment,  and  they  that  dwell  therein  shall  die  in 
like  manner.'  We  are  to  die  'in  like  manner'  with  the 
earth.  As  then  we,  so  many  as  are  in  Christ,  perish  not 
utterly,  but  put  off  only  corruption,  to  be,  by  a  new  and  im- 
mortal birth,  clothed  with  incorruption,  so  also  they. 


2l8  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

"  Again,  as  Holy  Scripture  says  of  us,  '  the  dead  shall  be 
raised  incorruptible,  and  we  shall  be  changed,'  so,  in  their 
measure,  of  them  ;  'as  a  vesture  shalt  Thou  change  them, 
and  they  shall  be  changed.'  It  says  not  only  '  shall  perish,' 
but  be  'changed,'  and  renewed  to  good.  'The  heavens 
being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved,  and  the  elements  shall  melt 
with  fervent  heat.'  Yet  the  fire  which  burns  up  heaven  and 
earth  shall  but  free  them  from  the  wrongs  which  they  endure 
at  our  hands,  the  bondage  in  which  they  have  been  held  to 
corruption  and  vanity  ;  and,  cleansing  them  from  the  stains 
and  defilements  of  our  sins,  shall  yield  them  pure,  '  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth,'  new  for  us  renewed,  incorrupt  for 
us  undefiled  ;  so  that  as  our  dwelling-place  has,  as  yet,  been 
marred  by  our  sin,  then  should  the  love  of  God  for  us  over- 
flow upon  it,  and  the  glory  of  His  presence,  which  shall  be 
our  joy,  shall  array  it  too  with  a  glad  brightness,  in  har- 
monious sympathy  with  our  joy.  '  As  our  human  body  shall 
be  endued  with  a  certain  supernatural  form  of  glory,  so  the 
whole  creation  of  sense,  in  that  glory  of  the  sons  of  God,  shall 
obtain  a  newness  of  glory,  and  the  former  things  passing 
away,  and  the  oldness  of  decay.  He  shall  make  all  things 
new.* 

"  Elsewhere,  too.  Holy  Scripture  lends  a  voice  to  mute  and 
inanimate  nature,  saying,  '  All  the  trees  of  the  wood  shall 
rejoice  before  the  Lord,  for  He  cometh.  He  cometh  to 
judge  the  earth.'  '  Break  forth  into  singing,  ye  mountains, 
O  forest  and  every  tree  therein.'  Wherein  it  speaks  doubtless 
in  part  in  a  spiritual  sense,  how  they  shall  abound  and  over- 
flow with  joy  in  God,  whom  He  hath  planted  in  His  courts, 
filled  with  the  life-giving,  ever-flowing  sap  of  His  Spirit,  and 
made  fruit-bearing  trees  ;  or  those  again,  eminent  in  light 
and  holiness,  who,  like  mountains,  are  rooted  deep  in  humil- 
ity, pierce  the  clouds  through  faith,  and  catch  the  first  beams 
of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness.  But  it  seems  to  picture  too  how 
heaven  and  earth  shall,  when  He  cometh,  wear  a  dress  of  joy. 


APPENDED  NOTES.  219 

So  the  prophet  says  again  that  our  earth  shall  glow  with  a 
fuller  light  from  heaven,  in  that  '  the  light  of  the  moon  shall 
be  as  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  sevenfold, 
as  the  light  of  seven  days.' 

"Such  glorious  tokens  of  our  immortal  state,  such  wonderful 
signs  of  oneness  and  love,  such  touching  lessons  of  our  pass- 
ing away  and  our  abiding,  does  God  shed  all  around  us,  that 
the  very  creation  which  we  misuse  should  mind  us  of  our 
end  ;  earth,  sea,  and  sky  should  bid  us  love  not  them,  but 
Him  who  made  them  ;  should  by  its  very  state  and  being,  its 
beauty  and  decay,  tell  us  to  long  for  Him  for  whom  itself 
seemeth  to  yearn,  the  perfection  of  beauty,  infinite  in  perfec- 
tion, who  alone  abideth  forever. 

"Yet  since  Holy  Scripture  saith  'the  whole  creation  groan- 
eth  and  travaileth  in  birth-pain  together  with'  us,  it,  in  some 
sense,  includes  all  created  being,  and  tells  us  that  all,  from 
highest  to  lowest,  have  an  interest  in  our  redemption  ;  all  are 
made  subject,  as  it  were,  to  some  imperfection  ;  all,  with  long 
and  longing  expectations,  look  '  for  the  revelation  of  the  sons 
of  God,'  when  our  life,  now  '  hidden  with  Christ  in  God,' 
shall  be  disclosed,  when  'Christ,  who  is  our  life,  appearing, 
we  also  shall  appear  with  Him  in  glory.'  " 

My  dear  friend,  William  Fitzhugh  Whitehouse, 
Esq.,  now  and  for  some  two  years  past  in  England, 
has  recently  published  a  monograph,  entitled,  "  The 
Redemption  of  the  Body,  being  an  Examination  of 
Rom.  viii.  18-23."  (London,  Elliot  Stock,  62  Pater- 
noster Row,  E.G.,  1892.)  It  is  well  worth  reading, 
and  shows  research  and  close  thought.  The  author 
will  not,  I  am  sure,  take  exception,  if  I  speak  of  his 
work  as  a  '•  private  interpretation  "  {idia  iniXvoiZ^^ 
considering  that  he  not  only  admits  but  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  his  rendering  of  the  passage  is 


220  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

**  virtually  new."  Mr.  Whitehouse's  contention  is, 
that  the  word  translated  *'  creature  "  or  *'  creation  " 
signifies  the  human  body.  He  has  not  succeeded  in 
persuading  me  to  alter  my  views  as  to  the  meaning 
of  St.  Paul ;  but  I  commend  his  book  to  the  student, 
and  consider  that  we  have  reason  to  be  thankful 
when  we  find  laymen  interesting  themselves  in  theo- 
logical questions  so  intelligently  as  he  has  done, 
and  treating  those  questions  in  so  reverent  a  spirit 
and  with  so  true  an  estimate  of  their  importance. 
Mr.  Whitehouse  promises  us  a  new  and  greatly 
enlarged  edition  of  his  work. 

NOTE    II.     (See  page  74.) 

I  cannot  do  justice  to  the  words  referred  to  with- 
out quoting  the  whole  passage  in  which  they  occur; 
and  I  do  so  the  more  willingly,  because  it  is  well 
for  some  of  us  to  see  precisely  how  things  strike  our 
brethren  who  are  looking  on  from  outside,  and  ob- 
serving the  drift  among  us.  The  testimony  of  Dr. 
Van  Dyke  as  to  the  real  quality  of  Zwinglianism  is 
particularly  valuable  : 

"We  cannot  undertake  accurately  to  define  what  Zwingle 
taught  in  regard  to  the  sacraments,  nor  to  harmonize  the  con- 
flicting testimony  of  the  learned  in  regard  to  it.  He  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  consistent  with  himself.  His  ardent  mind 
was  better  qualified  to  pull  down  error  than  to  build  up  the 
truth.  Admitting  all  that  has  been  said  in  explanation  and 
defence  of  his  teaching,  it  is  evident  that  his  doctrine  fell  far 
below  the  standard  of  the   reformed   confessions.     There   is 


APPENDED   NOTES.  221 

historic  justice  in  applying  the  name  'Zvvinglian'  to  such 
statements  in  regard  to  the  Lord's  Supper  as  the  following  : 

"  I.  That  the  bread  and  the  wine  of  the  Holy  Communion 
are  nothing  but  naked  and  bare  signs,  and  that  the  ordinance 
itself  is  simply  a  commemoration  of  Christ's  death,  a  badge  of 
our  Christian  profession,  and  a  pledge  of  mutual  love  among 
believers. 

"2.  That  the  Lord's  Supper  is  only  a  sign  and  seal  of  /r^r- 
exisfinggrsice  in  the  communicant,  and  not  a  means  or  instru- 
ment by  which  more  grace  is  bestowed  upon  those  who 
worthily  partake  of  it. 

"  3.  That  Christ  is  present  and  operative  for  our  salvation 
in  the  sacrament  only  in  His  divine  nature  and  in  the  appre- 
hension of  the  believing  communicant. 

"4.  That  the  benefits  received  by  the  believer  at  the  Lord's 
table  are  nothing  more  than  the  sacrificial  virtue  of  the 
Saviour's  death  on  the  cross. 

"  5.  That  the  sacramental  feeding  of  the  believing  soul  on 
Christ,  the  eating  of  His  flesh,  and  the  drinking  of  His  blood 
in  the  Holy  Supper,  is  identical  with  any  and  every  exercise 
of  faith  in  Him,  and  therefore  can  be  done  as  well  elsewhere 
as  at  the  Lord's  table. 

"6.  That  the  necessity  for  the  observance  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  simply  a  necessity  of  precept,  and  not  a  necessity  of 
means.  In  other  words,  that  we  are  obliged  to  keep  the  feast 
of  the  Holy  Communion  only  because  Christ  has  commanded 
it,  and  not  because  we  are  to  expect  any  special  benefit  from 
its  observance. 

"Each  of  these  statements  will  be  fully  discussed  as  we 
proceed.  Meantime,  we  cannot  forbear  to  observe  that  we 
reject  them  not  only  because  of  their  inconsistency  with  our 
doctrinal  standards  and  with  the  teaching  of  Scripture,  but 
because  of  the  spirit  which  pervades  them  and  the  underlying- 
assumptions  on  which  they  are  based.  Zwinglianism  is 
essentially  rationalistic  in  the  evil  sense  of  the  word.     Its 


222  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

chief  effort  is  to  explain  away  or  reduce  to  a  minimum  the 
mystery  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  It  assumes  that  the  theory 
which  is  most  level  to  our  comprehension,  which  brings  the 
Holy  Supper  nearest  to  a  common  meal  where  Christians 
have  sweet  fellowship  together,  and  makes  it  agree  most  with 
ordinary  human  experience,  is  for  that  reason  nearest  to  the 
truth.  We  have  heard  Presbyterian  ministers,  in  administer- 
ing it,  eulogizing  the  absolute  simplicity,  not  only  of  its  sym- 
bols, but  of  its  whole  design  and  efficacy  ;  comparing  it  to  the 
monument  which  recalls  the  memory  of  some  great  man,  as 
though  that  explained  its  whole  meaning  and  effect ;  and 
dwelling  with  minute  particularity  upon  Christ's  physical 
sufferings,  as  though  our  highest  purpose  in  keeping  the  feast 
was  to  look  on  a  pathetic  picture  and  be  moved  by  it.  We 
grow  weary  in  our  reading  on  the  subject  of  the  reiterated 
assertion  that  this  or  that  view  is  incomprehensible,  unreas- 
onable, or  contrary  to  common  sense  ;  and  the  more  so,  be- 
cause the  same  writers  who  use  such  arguments  in  regard  to 
the  Lord's  Supper  repudiate  and  denounce  them  when  they 
are  urged  by  others  against  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the 
sovereignty  of  God,  the  incarnation,  the  atonement,  the  resur- 
rection and  exaltation  of  Christ,  the  vital  union  of  believers 
with  His  glorified  Person,  and  the  wonder-working  power  of 
His  Holy  Spirit,  all  of  which  revealed  mysteries  pervade,  and 
are  embodied  in,  the  transcendent  mystery  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. 

"Perhaps  the  ripest  and  the  bitterest  fruit  of  this  rational- 
izing about  the  Lord's  Supper  may  be  found  in  Dean  Stanley's 
'Christian  Institutions.'  Adopting  the  idea  of  Renan,  he 
makes  the  '  Last  Supper  a  continuation  of  those  earlier  feasts 
in  which  Christ  had  blessed  and  broken  the  bread  and  dis- 
tributed the  fishes  on  the  hills  of  Galilee.'  He  can  see  no 
higher  character  in  the  communion  of  the  first  and  second 
centuries  than  in  the  festive  dinner  of  '  a  Greek  club,  where 
each  brought,  as  to  a  common  meal,  his  own  contribution  in 


APPENDED  NOTES.  223 

a  basket,  and  each  helped  himself  from  a  common  table.'  He 
identifies  the  Lord's  Supper  with  the  love-feasts  of  the  Early- 
Church.  He  admits,  indeed,  that  it  was  intended  by  its 
Founder  to  be  'a  glorification  of  the  power  of  memory  ;  '  but 
in  his  account  of  what  is  thus  to  be  remembered  he  is  careful 
to  avoid  any  reference  to  Christ's  death  as  the  sacrifice  for 
sin,  and  insists  only  upon  His  example  and  teaching-  as  incul- 
cating human  charity.  In  proportion  as  the  observance  of 
this  ordinance  enables  us  'to  move  in  unison  '  with  the  par- 
ables of  the  Prodigal  Son,  the  Good  Samaritan,  and  the  Good 
Shepherd  ;  with  the  Beatitudes  on  the  Galilean  mountains, 
the  resignation  in  Gethsemane,  and  the  courage  on  Calvary, 
he  affirms  that  '  it  is  a  true  partaking  of  what  the  Gospels 
intended  by  the  body  of  Christ.'  He  denies  that  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  necessary  for  these  ends,  and  insists  that  all  who 
move  in  unison  with  these  moral  precepts  and"  examples, 
'whether  they  be  Christian  in  name  or  not,  whether  they  have 
or  have  not  partaken  of  the  sacrament,  have  thus  received 
Christ,  because  they  have  received  that  which  was  the  essence 
of  Christ — His  spirit  of  mercy  and  toleration.' 

"There  is  nothing  new  in  these  sentiments.  But  the 
strange  thing  is  that  a  clergyman  of  high  position  in  the 
Church  of  England,  one  accustomed  to  the  public  use  of  her 
solemn  liturgies,  should  advocate  such  opinions  ;  that  he 
should  claim  for  them  the  authority  of  '  the  clear-headed  and 
intrepid  Zvvingle,'  and  attempt  to  reconcile  them  with  the 
Articles  and  Formularies  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  by  the 
vague  assertion  that  '  since  the  days  of  Elizabeth  a  strong 
Zwinglian  atmosphere  has  pervaded  the  original  theology  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  been  its  prevailing  hue.'" 

NOTE    IIL     (See  page  96.) 

The  first  edition  of  the  tract  referred  to  was  pub- 
lished some  twenty-five  years  ago,  under  the  title, 


224  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

*' A  Statement  on  Confession,  made  by  request  in 
the  Church  of  St.  John  Baptist,  Kidderminster,  on 
Sunday,  November  15,  1868,  by  the  Rev.  C.  N. 
Gray,  Curate."  The  Rev.  Milo  Mahan,  D.D.,  some- 
time Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  Gen- 
eral Theological  Seminary,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
death  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Baltimore,  Md., 
induced  by  personal  considerations,  prepared  an  In- 
troduction to  a  proposed  reprint  of  this  tract,  only 
a  few  months  before  his  departure  out  of  this  world. 
It  was  an  abridgment  of  a  much  longer  document, 
written  by  him  under  peculiarly  trying  circum- 
stances while  in  the  seminary.  I  have,  perhaps,  the 
only  existing  copy,  and  it  is  possible  that  some  day, 
when  the  recollection  of  an  old  and  bitter  contro- 
versy has  died  out,  that  very  brilliant  and  telling 
production  may  see  the  light.  What  we  have  of  it 
is  so  clear,  so  pungent,  and  so  full  of  common  sense, 
that  I  take  occasion  to  reprint  it  here  in  full. 


"  INTRODUCTION 

TO     THE    AMERICAN     EDITION    OF    THE     REV.     C.     N.     GRAY'S 
TRACT,    ENTITLED, 

•A    STATEMENT   ON    CONFESSION.' 

"  Confession  to  God  is  a  necessary  and  commanded  act, 
which,  if  done  at  all,  should  be  thoroughly  and  well  done, 
with  every  proper  help  and  appliance.  Confession  to  man  is 
not  so  necessary,  nor  so  commanded.     Its  advantage  arises 


APPENDED  NOTES.  22$ 

chiefly  from  human  ignorance  and  weakness,  a  proper  sense 
of  which  will  lead  every  sober  person  to  get  counsel  and  com- 
fort from  those  who  are  best  qualified  to  give  it.  For  the 
maxim,  'Confess  your  sins  one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for 
another,'  does  not  imply  promiscuous  confession.  It  is  enough 
to  confess  to  such  as  we  can  best  confide  in,  conforming  to  the 
rules  of  propriety  and  order.  The  same  principle  that  leads 
one  to  a  physician  for  confession  of  bodily  ailments,  or  to  a 
lawyer  for  counsel  in  troubles  of  estate,  will  naturally  desig- 
nate a  clergyman  for  relief  in  spiritual  affairs.  This  is  a  mat- 
ter of  common  sense,  conceded  by  all.  The  reason  why  it  is 
not  more  generally  acted  upon  by  Protestants  is,  the  dread  of 
Rome.  Where  Satan  cannot  lead  men  into  evil  by  love  of  a 
false  system,  he  deters  them  from  good  by  an  unreasonable 
dread.  An  abuse  which  ceases  to  be  an  attraction  is  con- 
verted into  a  scarecrow. 

"In  this  way  it  happens  that  the  pastoral  office,  instead  of 
being  an  easy  and  familiar  help  to  our  communicants  and 
young  people,  is  becoming  more  and  more  an  object  of  dread 
or  suspicion.  When  the  staff  of  the  Lawgiver  was  thrown 
upon  the  ground,  it  became  a  serpent ;  when  his  hand  was 
thrust  into  his  bosom,  it  was  covered  with  leprosy.  Such  is 
the  fate  now  threatening  the  pastoral  office  in  the  Church. 
Our  older  people,  sinking  under  weights  which  they  are  ex- 
horted to  lay  aside,  but  with  no  hand  helping  them  so  to  do, 
are  less  and  less  intimate  with  their  spiritual  guides  ;  our 
younger  people  fall  insensibly,  often  through  ignorance,  into 
besetting  sins,  of  which  no  man  gives  them  fair  warning. 
Young  and  old  alike  are  afraid  to  see  their  pastors,  except  in 
'  classes,' 

"  Diffident  about  recommending  to  others  what  I  know  to 
have  been  good  for  myself,  I  have  yet,  in  cases  not  a  few,  here 
and  there  felt  obliged  to  do  for  others  what  others  have  done 
for  me.  And  in  the  more  perilous  matter  of  half-confidences 
and  consultations  about  private  affairs,  where  the  clergy  are 

15 


226  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

frequently  called  to  share  the  secret  burden  of  their  brethren, 
I  deem  it  always  an  advantage  to  all  parties  if  the  thing  can 
be  so  religiously  conducted  as  to  give  the  priest  the  benefit 
of  the  CXIIIth  Canon  of  the  Church  of  England,  by  putting 
everything  confided  to  him  under  the  seal  of  the  confessional. 
For,  after  all,  whether  we  desire  it  or  not,  the  clergy  become 
the  repositories  of  many  secrets.  The  only  difference  made 
by  a  formal  opening  of  one's  grief  is,  that  the  spiritual  adviser 
is  less  tempted  to  blab  or  gossip  ;  and  cases  which  I  have 
known  to  occur,  where  eloquent  ecclesiastics,  in  the  mere 
heat  of  speaking,  have  divulged  to  the  public  things  manifestly 
spoken  in  confidence,  could  never  happen  if  the  clergy  were 
more  trusted  in  a  religious  way. 

"  It  is  true,  in  a  certain  degree,  that  clergymen  of  all  denomi- 
nations are  already  very  much  trusted  ;  and  that,  going  about 
a  good  deal  from  house  to  house,  and  hearing  a  great  deal  of 
confidential  talk,  they  become  the  depositories  of  all  sorts  of 
secrets,  the  sharers  of  all  sorts  of  private  burdens,  the  keepers, 
as  it  were,  of  all  skeletons  in  all  closets,  without  putting  tliem- 
selves  under  the  seal  of  religious  silence,  and  witliout  securing 
very  much  opportunity  for  religious  counsel  or  comfort.  But 
this  is  often  an  evil  rather  than  a  benefit.  There  is  an  im- 
mense waste  of  time,  in  the  first  place.  There  is  danger  of 
abuse,  in  the  second  place.  One  satisfactory  visit  to  a  parish- 
ioner is  gotten  at  the  cost  of  a  dozen  mere  'calls.'  Half-con- 
fidences, gossip,  tattle,  controversy,  and  the  like,  take  the 
place  of  the  opening  of  one's  griefs.  Moreover,  the  thing  en- 
genders among  the  clergy  tliat  worst  disease  in  a  spiritual  or 
a  professional  man — looseness  of  tongue.  What  men  receive 
in  mere  gossip  they  are  tempted  to  retail  as  such.  What  is 
uttered  in  real  confidence,  with  a  formal  and  strict  under- 
standing, and  only  for  a  religious  profit,  is  buried  and  put 
away,  as  though  it  had  never  been  uttered.  A  physician  sel- 
dom blabs  the  infirmities  of  his  patients.  A  lawyer  can  be  as 
still  as  the  grave  where  the  secrets  of  a  client  are  involved. 


APPENDED   NOTES.  2 27 

Professional  confidence,  in  fact,  is  protected  by  all  laws, 
human  and  divine. 

"  I  have  always,  therefore,  regarded  it  as  a  great  advantage 
that  when  a  person  wishes  to  '  see  a  minister' — that  is,  when 
he  really  wishes  to  confer  with  him  privately  about  the  state 
of  his  soul — there  should  be,  first,  perfect  freedom  so  to  do 
without  blame  or  suspicion  ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  such 
directions,  safeguards,  and  helps  as  the  Church  of  England  has 
provided  in  the  Exhortation  to  the  Holy  Communion,  as  well 
as  in  other  places  referred  to  in  the  following  tract  of  Mr. 
Gray.  A  pastor's  office,  like  that  of  a  physician,  is  necessarily 
a  sort  of  '  confessional,'  though  we  may  scruple  to  call  it  by 
that  name.  While  we  shrink  from  the  evils  that  long  abuse 
has  associated  with  the  Roman  doctrine  of  confession,  it.  would 
be  mere  cowardice  and  folly  to  confound  the  abuse  with  the 
use. 

"Many  are  averse,  except  in  very  peculiar  cases,  to  over- 
frequent  confession.  I  have  the  same  feeling.  To  the  soul,  as 
to  the  body,  food  is  better  than  physic  ;  and  beyond  a  certain 
point,  exercise  and  rest  are  better  than  either.  They  also  ob- 
ject to  what  has  sometimes  been  called  '  the  heresy  of  direc- 
tion,' namely,  the  very  common  practice — possibly  more 
common  among  Romanists  than  among  us — of  walking  by 
other  people's  consciences  rather  than  by  one's  own.  I  ob- 
ject to  the  same.  But,  practically,  I  have  little  faith  in  con- 
fession as  a  means  of  mere  influence.  One  may  like  his 
physician  very  well,  if  he  is  an  agreeable  man  otherwise. 
But  I  doubt  whether  any  one  attaches  his  patients  to  him,  or 
moulds  their  politics  or  religion  by  the  mere  goodness  of  his 
medicines. 

"  But  however  this  may  be,  I  have  never  taught  or  practised 
any  doctrine  of  confession  without  carefully  guarding  against 
the  notion  oi  compulsion,  in  the  first  place,  which  is  the  gist 
of  the  Roman  doctrine  ;  or  of  over-frequency,  direction,  prob- 
able   opinions,  penances  in    place  of  conversion,    privity  to 


228  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

crimes  intended  or  perpetrated,  and  many  other  abuses  war- 
ranted by  Roman  authority,  which  I  have  carefully  studied 
from  my  youth.  Nay,  in  dealing  with  persons  who  are  dis- 
posed to  attribute  too  much  to  confession,  as  is  often  the  case 
both  with  penitents  and  with  loose  men  of  the  world,  I  have 
habitually  underrated  its  importance,  by  showing  how  easily, 
like  other  medicines,  it  loses  its  effects.  In  all  my  innumer- 
able answers  on  confession,  on  which  I  have  been  appealed  to 
by  all  sorts  of  men,  and  for  all  sorts  of  purposes,  I  have  in- 
variably taught,  yfri-/  of  all,  that  confession  should  always  be 
voluntary  aiid  unforced ;  I  might  almost  say  that  I  hate 
enforced  confession,  believing  it  to  be  destructive  of  the  chief 
good  of  confession.  I  am  also  averse,  except  in  very  peculiar 
cases,  to  frequent  confessions,  believing  that  over-frequency  in 
the  use  of  such  medicine  is  deleterious  ;  that  for  the  soul,  as  for 
the  body,  food  is  better  than  medicine,  and  exercise  and  rest 
sometimes  better  than  both.  I  have  also  invariably  taught  that 
the  Jesuit  doctrine  of  'probable  opinions,'  so-called,  is  im- 
moral ;  that  no  amount  of  *  penance  '  is  a  substitute  for  con- 
version ;  that  '  absolution,'  without  due  promise  of  amend- 
ment, is  sacrilegious  ;  that  immodest  and  over-minute  questions 
or  suggestions  tend  only  to  evil  ;  that  the  habit  of  confessing 
only  to  priests  personally  unknown,  is  pride  assuming  the 
garb  of  humility  ;  that  sin  alone  is  the  subject  of  confession,' 
and  holiness  of  life  alone  a  matter  of  counsel  or  direction  ; 
that  conscience  is  to  be  enlightened,  not  forced  ;  that  while 
'  the  seal  of  the  confessional '  is  inviolable  in  legitimate  mat- 
ters of  confession,  yet  to  appeal  to  it,  as  in  the  infamous  Gun- 
powder Plot,  for  meditated  sins  or  crimes,  is  an  outrage  to 
God  and  man  ;  that  numbering,  or  weighing,  or  curious 
searching  out  of  sins  is  an  unwise  thing,  if  not  positively  in- 
jurious ;  that,  in  short,  the  rules  laid  down  in  Roman  Catho- 
lic directions,  and  practised  more  or  less  in  Roman  confes- 
sions, are,  for  the  most  part,  unwarrantable  by  Catholic 
teaching  ;  and  to  these,  and  many  like  corruptions,  the  loose 


APPENDED   NOTES.  229 

morals  of  the  Roman  Catholic  countries  may  be  fairly  attrib- 
uted. These,  and  similar  points,  mark  out  a  clear  line  be- 
tween confession,  popularly  so-called,  and  a  proper  pastoral 
care,  or,  in  other  words,  between  the  Roman  and  the  Catholic 
confession. 

"  Yet  I  never  refuse  a  sinner  the  privilege  of  opening  his 
grief  to  his  pastor,  or  withhold  from  him  any  counsel  or  com- 
fort I  am  able  to  give.  I  repel  no  one  who  comes  to  me  as 
the  Exhortation  in  the  Communion  Office  directs  him.  More- 
over, I  am  willing  to  confess  before  God  and  man  that  the 
few  opportunities  I  have  had  of  ministering  in  this  way  to 
weak  or  wounded  souls  have  been,  in  my  judgment,  the  most 
fruitful,  nay,  perhaps  the  only  fruitful,  parts  of  an  unworthy 
ministry  ;  and  if  I  had  my  life  to  live  over  again,  I  would 
preach  as  well  as  practise  it  more  earnestly  than  I  have  done. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  am  aware  that  this  dealing  with  men's 
griefs  is  a  perilous  matter,  liable  to  abuses  ;  that  Rome 
especially  has  caused  it  to  be  beset  with  scandals  ;  that 
whether  in  the  study,  the  confessional,  the  vestry-room,  the 
sick  chamber,  or  in  the  open  church,  the  intercourse  of  priest 
and  penitent  should  be  jealously  guarded  ;  that  every  precau- 
tion against  abuse  or  calumny  which  the  lawyer  may  need  in 
his  confidential  intercourse  with  his  clients,  or  the  physician 
in  his  sacred  care  of  his  patients,  requires  to  be  at  least 
equally  observed  by  those  who  deal  with  spiritual  troubles  ; 
and  that  consciences  had  better  not  be  medicined  at  all,  than 
tampered  with  by  rash  or  over-timid  hands.  On  this  ground, 
I  see  much  to  dislike  in  the  Roman  confessional  ;  much  to 
admire  in  the  Greek,  which  ^theoretically)  differs  little  from 
our  own  ;  much  to  approve  in  the  Anglican  ;  and  nothing  to 
desiderate,  save  only  that  it  should  be  honestly  carried  out  in 
the  spirit  of  the  Prayer-book.  For,  as  things  go  now,  a  man 
may  be  easily  enough  wounded  in  the  house  of  his  friends, 
and  the  bruised  reeds  may  be  easily  broken  ;  but  what  with 
our  fear  of  Rome,  and  our  readiness  to  devour  one  another — 


230  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

which  is  often  only  another  word  for  our  fear  of  men — the 
poor,  sickly  sheep  of  the  flock,  if  we  have  any  such,  are  in  a 
sad  predicament. 

"  I  do  not  deny  that  there  is  a  Catholic  doctrine  on  this 
subject  of  confession,  and  it  will  give  me  pleasure  to  show, 
presently,  how  such  a  doctrine  may  be  ascertained.  But 
meanwhile  I  utterly  deny  that  any  such  doctrine,  however 
accurately  made  out,  could  be  any  compulsory  authority  to  us. 
We  have  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the  Articles,  the 
Homilies,  and  the  like.  By  them,  and  them  only,  can  the 
doctrine  of  our  clergy  be  tried.  But  so  far  as  our  Church  is 
concerned,  of  which  I  avow  myself  a  dutiful  though  unworthy 
son  ;  or  so  far  as  the  Catholic  Church  goes,  in  which  'I  be- 
lieve ' — though  I  see  less  of  her  than  my  poor  heart  craves — 
I  find  no  very  '  accurate  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  confes- 
sion,' I  find  in  our  admirable  formularies,  however,  a  very 
beautiful  exhortation  to  confession,  where  the  sinner  thinks 
he  needs  it  ;  and  to  '  counsel,  comfort,  and  absolution,* 
where  the  priest  is  disposed  to  give  it.  These,  with  a  few 
other  like  points  here  and  there,  are  the  'Catholic  doctrine  of 
confession,'  so  far  as  I  know  or  teach  it  in  any  real  sense. 

"One  may  not  be  able  to  distinguish,  with  sufficient  accu- 
racy, all  points  of  difference  between  us  and  Rome  ;  but  it 
requires  very  little  sense  to  see  that  Rome  is  a  great  fisher  of 
young  people  ;  that  she  knows  what  food  the  young  appetite 
craves  ;  and  consequently,  if  she  baits  the  hook  chiefly  '  with 
the  benefits  of  confession,'  it  is  because  she  knows  this  to  be 
a  most  attractive  part  of  her  system.  I  have  had  some  experi- 
ence of  what  are  called  '  tendencies  to  Rome  ;  '  and  I 
believe,  as  the  upshot  of  my  experience,  that,  with  young 
people  especially,  the  desire  to  go  to  Rome  is,  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten,  simply  the  desire  of  confession.  I  do  not  hesitate, 
therefore,  to  commend  such  confession  as  our  Church  allows. 

"  But  while  I  am  unwilling  to  expose  myself  to  ridicule  by 
pretending  to  any  'sufficient  accuracy,'  either  in  this  or  in 


APPENDED  NOTES.  23  I 

any  other  point  of  doctrine,  yet  I  think  I  know  what  the 
'Catholic  doctrine  of  confession'  may  be  safely  affirmed  to 
be,  in  a  general  and  historical  way.  It  is  a  doctrine  of  confes- 
sion and  absolution  for  the  relief  of  sinners,  always  the  same 
in  substance,  but  carried  out  in  different  ways,  at  different 
times,  and  in  different  places. 

"  In  apostolic  times,  as  we  learn  from  a  marked  example,  it 
may  be  briefly  summed  up  as  follows  :  A  communicant  com- 
mits a  manifest  or  notorious  sin  ;  by  the  ministry  of  the  Church 
the  sin  is  brought  home  to  his  conscience  ;  by  the  same  min- 
istry, acting  in  the  spirit  of  love,  he  is  cut  off  from  communion, 
and  moved  to  open  confession  ;  by  tiie  same  ministry  he  gets 
absolution,  after  due  repentance,  and  so  is  finally  restored  to 
the  communion  which  his  sin  had  forfeited.* 

"In  the  early  Catholic  Church  the  process  was  substantially 
the  same,  though  perhaps  with  more  of  severity  and  less  of 
love.  Briefly,  the  sinner  was  turned  out  of  the  Church,  and 
was  kept  on  a  long  course  of  prostration  in  the  dust,  with 
weeping,  mourning,  fasting,  supplication,  howling,  kissing  the 
feet  of  the  faittiful,  clutching  at  the  garments  of  the  clergy, 
with  exposure  to  the  weather,  and  the  like.f  till,  his  heart 
being  sufficiently  triturated  and  melted,  he  was  finally  allowed 
to  confess  before  the  whole  congregation,  and  to  receive  abso- 
lution, and  so  to  be  restored  to  his  former  estate. 

"  This  was  pretty  strict  discipline  ;  yet  it  was  not  severe 
enough  to  satisfy  the  great  party  called  Puritans,  who  con- 
tended that  the  sinner  should  be  given  over  to  Satan  entirely, 
so  far  as  communion  went,  and  be  denied  coji/ession  and 
absolutio7i  altogetiier — at  least,  till  the  Day  of  Judgment. 

"At  a  later  period  the  Church  became  more  courtly,  if  not 
more  loving  ;  discipline  began  to  fall  away  ;  and  a  priestly 
official,  called  a  Penitentiary ,  was  allowed,  in  lieu  of  sharper 

*  I  Cor.  V.  15  ;  2  Cor.  ii.  5-1 1. 
f  FzV/^  Bingham's  *' Antiquities." 


2^2  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

measures,  to  receive  private  confessions  at  the  sinner's 
mouth,  and  thereupon  to  give  him  absolution.  But  a  great 
scandal  having  occurred  in  Constantinople,  involving  the 
character  of  a  lady,  the  office  was  summarily  abolished,  and 
'the  Catholic  doctrine  of  confession'  lay  at  loose  ends  for  a 
time. 

"Afterward,  the  Latin  Church  stiffened  by  degrees,  amid  a 
great  flood  of  scandals,  into  its  present  way  of  accounting  all 
alike  to  be  sinners,  and  of  enforcing  confession  and  absolution 
upon  all  as  a  sine  qua  non  of  communion. 

"  The  Greek  Church  settled  into  a  practice  much  the  same, 
save  that  in  the  East,  confession  being  made  to  married 
priests,  and  each  sinner  being  restricted  to  his  own  pastor, 
there  is  less  coarseness  in  the  examination  of  penitents,  less  of 
mutual  underbidding  among  the  priests,  less  jealousy  and 
wrangling,  less  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  families,  less  casu- 
istry, less  mystery,  and  altogether  less  scandal  and  confusion, 
than  in  the  rival  communion.  So,  at  least,  I  have  heard  from 
an  eminent  and  intelligent  Greek  priest.  It  is  a  mistake  to 
suppose,  however,  that  confession  is  less  obligatory  among 
the  Greeks  than  among  the  Latins.  No  man  comes  to  the 
communion  without  notice  to  his  priest,  or  without  some  ex- 
amination of  conscience — though  this  examination  is  for  the 
most  part  summary,  and  has  nothing  of  the  formality  of  what 
is  called  '  Auricular  Confession,'  and,  in  fact,  is  a  different 
sort  of  thing. 

"In  the  Anglican  Church  the  old  distinction  is  maintained 
between  an  ordinary  Christian  and  a  '  notorious  evil  liver,' 
the  latter  term  including  any  one  known  to  have  wronged  his 
neighbor  by  word  or  deed,  or  even  any  one  betwixt  whom  and 
any  other  '  the  minister  perceiveth  malice  and  hatred  to 
reign.'  Such  an  one  must  openly  declare  himself  to  have 
truly  repented  and  amended  his  former  evil  life,  '  to  the  sat- 
isfaction of  the  minister  and  the  congregation,'  who,  being 
satisfied,  the  minister  ought  to  admit  'the  penitent  person  to 


APPENDED  NOTES.  233 

the  Holy  Communion,  and  not  him  that  is  obstinate.'  This, 
of  course,  cannot  be  done  without  at  least  virtual  confession 
and  absolution,  the  priest  meanwhile  holding  the  offender  in 
a  state  of  practical  excommunication,  from  which  only  him- 
self or  the  Ordinary  can  release  him.  Thus  '  enforced  con- 
fession' is  the  rule  of  the  Church,  restricted,  however,  as  in 
the  early  Church,  to  notorious  evil  livers,  and  to  sins  which 
cause  scandal,  hatred,  and  the  like. 

"  With  regard  to  the  large  class  who  come  not  under  this 
category,  but  who  yet  are  more  or  less  conscious  of  sin,  the 
Church  enjoins,  in  the  first  place,  thorough  self-examination, 
bewailing  of  sin,  confession  to  God,  full  purpose  of  amend- 
ment, restitution,  satisfaction,  forgiveness  ;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  if  there  is  still  a  lack  of  full  trust  in  God's  mercy,  or  of 
a  quiet  conscience,  or  of  further  comfort  or  counsel,  she  sends 
the  sinner  to  the  pastor,  or  to  some  other  minister,  that  he  may 
open  his  grief,  and  '  that  he  may  receive  the  betiefit  of  abso- 
lution.' I  quote  these  last  words  from  the  English  book, 
because  I  am  now  speaking  only  of  the  Anglican  Church's 
doctrine  on  the  subject,  which  is  of  course  the  same  in  both 
books,  our  American  Church  having  solemnly  declared,  in  her 
Preface,  that  in  the  verbal  variations  she  has  made,  she  is  far 
from  intending  to  depart  from  the  Church  of  England  in  any 
essential  point  of  doctrine,  discipline,  or  worship,  or  further 
than  local  circumstances  require. 

"This  doctrine  I  freely  confess  myself  to  have  held  during 
all  my  ministerial  life.  Moreover,  so  far  as  the  care  of  my  own 
soul  is  concerned,  I  have  practised  what  I  hold  ;  though,  from 
a  fear  of  misapprehension  and  want  of  zeal,  I  have  been  far 
too  infrequent  in  the  use  of  this  help,  as  well  as  too  slack 
in  recommending  so  salutary  a  medicine  to  others.  Yet,  in 
cases  not  a  few,  some  of  them  clergymen,  my  superiors  in 
age,  piety,  and  zeal,  I  have  felt  obliged  to  do  for  others  what 
I  have  known  to  be  good  for  myself.  As  a  matter  of  taste, 
however,  I  do  not  always   call  the  thing  '  confession,' much 


234  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

less  by  such  a  sounding  name  as  'Catholic  confession  ;' but 
am  content  to  regard  it  as  a  conference,  a  confidential  talk  on 
spiritual  matters.  At  the  present  day  religion  is  choking 
itself  with  names.  If  people  would  look  more  at  things,  and 
less  at  words,  the  Church  would  be  far  better  off. 

"And  in  all  this,  I  tliink  I  differ  little,  if  at  all,  from  the 
]:)ractical  belief  of  the  clergy  generally,  of  all  sects  and  parties 
and  views.  There  is  a  well-grounded  dislike  of  such  terms  as 
'auricular  confession,'  'Popish  confession,'  'confession  to 
man,'  and  the  like  ;  and  I  must  say,  in  passing,  that  where 
Mr.  Gray  uses  the  expression,  '  confession  to  man,'  and  de- 
fends it,  I  think  he  might  have  employed  a  better  phrase, 
though  his  meaning  is  safe  enough  ;  for  when  the  Church 
exhorts  a  person  to  come  to  uie  or  to  some  other  discreet  and 
learned  minister  of  God's  Word,  I  do  not  understand  her  to 
mean  nie  or  any  other  minister  as  a  mere  man,  but  rather  as 
an  ambassador  for  Christ,  and  'as  though  God  did  beseech 
you  by  us,'  while  'we  pray  you  in  Chris fs  stead,  be  ye  recon- 
ciled to  God.'  True  confession  is  always  to  God,  however 
much  the  instrumentality  of  man  may  be  used,  for  comfort, 
counsel,  and  the  like  ;  and  true  '  absolution  '  comes  only 
from  God,  by  whatever  messenger,  or  in  whatever  form,  it 
may  be  conveyed.  But  saving  some  objection  to  phrases, 
capable  of  misinterpretation,  or  at  least  of  exception,  I  believe 
religious  men  of  all  sects  and  parties  would  be  glad  to  see  a 
greater  readiness  on  the  part  of  clergy  and  laity  alike  to  con- 
fide their  spiritual  griefs  to  some  '  learned  and  discreet  min- 
ister,' who  should  feel  himself  under  bonds,  as  it  were,  to 
know  nothing  of  men's  secrets  as  a  man,  but  only  as  God's 
angel,  ministering  in  the  presence  of  God. 

"  There  is  a  feeling  among  us  all,  that  if  we  could  know  our 
people  better,  our  people  would  know  us.  But  to  know  any 
one  really,  in  spiritual  affairs,  is  a  rarer  thing  by  far  than  is 
commonly  imagined.  However  frank  we  may  be  in  every- 
day intercourse,   no  person   ever  carries   his  soul  upon  his 


APPENDED   NOTES.  235 

sleeve  ;  and  if  any  one  should  be  found  who  is  an  exception  to 
this  rule  in  ordinary  cases,  even  he  will  take  care  to  have  an 
oversleeve  for  Sundays,  or  for  pastoral  visitations.  On  the 
other  hand,  few  persons  would  object  to  frank  and  frequent 
conference  wdth  the  clergy,  if  only  it  be  done  medicinally,  and 
with  proper  care.  Hence,  all  that  the  clergy  need  is  oppor- 
tunity and  reasonable  confidence.  If  they  could  see  their 
flocks  separately,  in  proper  time  and  place  for  religious  inter- 
course ;  if  they  could  learn  their  griefs,  scruples,  struggles, 
weights,  besetments,  and  the  like  ;  if  they  could  deal  with 
sins  as  physicians  deal  with  diseases,  not  as  monsters  to  make 
wry  faces  at,  but  as  infirmities  to  be  healed,  the  pastoral  rela- 
tion would  be  much  more  satisfactory  to  all  parties. 

"As  things  go  now,  society  is  to  the  clergy  as  the  woman 
of  Samaria  to  our  Lord.  What  she  desires  is  a  pleasant  little 
chat  about  religion  in  general — a  charming  little  discussion 
about  Jerusalem  and  the  mountain.  What  He  has  in  view 
is,  a  word  of  solid  counsel  in  relation  to  her  five  husbands. 
She  wishes  to  hear  where  men  ought  to  worship.  He  would 
rather  tell  her  how  she  ought  to  worship.  So  society  bluffs 
off  her  spiritual  guides,  sitting  down  with  them  most  amiably 
at  any  Jacob's  well  of  wayside  conversation,  and  ready  to 
listen  eagerly  to  'accurate'  distinctions  of  doctrines,  'Cath- 
olic' or  'Roman:'  but  when  it  comes  to  the  point,  as  we 
say — when  we  ask  what  Catholic  'confession'  is,  and  where 
it  is  to  be  found,  and  when  and  where  and  how  it  is  tauo-jit 
and  practised — the  matter  is  apt  to  end  less  profitably,  I  fear, 
than  with  the  woman  of  Samaria  ;  for  she  had  too  firm  an  eve 
upon  her  to  be  able  to  escape  in  that  way.  But  society  evades 
us  by  any  colored  rag  she  may  flaunt  in  our  faces  ;  and  the 
real  religious  question  of  the  day,  namely,  how  to  get  at  our 
people,  how  to  bring  about  a  real  pastoral  relation,  is  swal- 
lowed up  in  controversies  about  forms  and  clothes. 

"  I  grant  that  there  is  a  real  difficulty  in  pushing  points  of  this 
kind.     Clothes  or  rags  are  easily  converted  into  scarecrows; 


236  LENTEN  LECTURES. 

and  scarecrows,  of  course,  are  calcvilated  to  scare.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  submit,  they  are  meant  to  scare  crows,  not  men  : 
so  that  while  there  is  among  us  a  well-grounded  dislike  of  such 
terms  as  'confession,'  or  'confession  to  man,'  yet,  I  think, 
we  are  reasonable  creatures,  and  are  bound  to  deal  with  mere 
words  in  a  liberal  way.  Thus,  the  term  'confession'  I  do 
not  altogether  like,  on  account  of  some  of  its  associations  ;  but 
it  expresses  that  opening  of  one's  griefs  which  the  Church 
expressly  sanctions,  and  is  sufficiently  Catholic  in  its  use  to 
be  easily  understood.  'Auricular'  confession  is  in  a  different 
category,  because  custom  associates  it  only  with  a  particular 
mode  of  confession,  which  is  peculiar  to  Rome. 

"  A  greater  trust  in  one  another,  and  more  readiness  to  con- 
fess to  one  another,  is  a  thing  which  may  exist  without  Rome  : 
and  if  it  may,  I  think  we  are  all  agreed  that  it  ought. 

"From  this  brief  sketch  we  may  deduce,  at  least,  the  main 
points  of  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  confession,  viz.,  those  points 
which  have  been  held  by  all  such  churches,  ancient  and  mod- 
ern, as  profess  to  believe  in  the  Holy  Catholic  Church. 

"  I  take  them  to  be,  first,  for  open,  notorious,  scandalous 
sins,  excofnfnunication,  enforced  confession,  in  connection 
with  such  discipline  as  changing  times  and  places  may  deter- 
mine ;  absolution,  in  such  forms  and  ways  as  from  time  to 
time  may  be  adopted  ;  entire  restoratioji  to  Church  commun- 
ion. With  regard  to  this  order,  however,  and  in  the  same 
way  in  regard  to  any  particular  forms,  words,  or  ceremonies, 
or  the  like,  I  think  the  Catholic  doctrine  to  be  eminently 
grounded  on  the  '  law  of  liberty.'  When  our  Lord  said  to 
the  paralytic,  rise  and  walk,  it  was  all  the  same,  virtually,  as 
to  say,  '  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee'  When  a  modern  priest 
says  to  a  sinner,  I  admit  you  to  the  Lord's  Table,  he  absolves 
him  as  effectually,  though  not  as  solemnly,  as  when  an  ancient 
priest  laid  his  hands  on  him  with  all  the  elaborate  ceremonial 
of  primitive  Catholic  times. 

"  But,  secondly,  for  sins   not  notorious,  scandalous,  or   un- 


APPENDED   NOTES.  237 

charitable,  private  confession  is  allowed  or  commended,  but 
not  forced  on  any  man's  conscience.  It  is  a  part  of  one's 
Christian  liberty.  And  where  it  has  come  to  be  enforced,  as 
by  the  modern  Roman  Church,  it  is  generally  grounded  on  no 
doctrine,  so  far  as  I  understand  ;  but,  like  the  withholding  of 
the  cup  from  the  laity,  or  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  or  kneel- 
ing at  the  Communion,  or  numberless  other  things  of  the  sort, 
it  is  simply  a  matter  of  disciplinary  law,  a  matter  of  wise — or 
unwise — legislation. 

"  Where  the  Latin  or  Greek  Church  imposes  confession  upon 
all  alike,  it  is  done  by  special  legislation,  as  a  matter  of  dis- 
cipline, which,  like  the  withholding  of  the  cup  from  the  laity, 
or  denial  of  marriage  to  the  clergy,  is  defended  on  grounds 
of  expediency,  or  necessity,  not  of  doctrine  in  the  full  sense  of 
the  word.  The  Church  of  England,  if  she  liked,  might,  on 
the  same  ^xowwds,  forbid  private  confession  altogether.  But 
as  she  has  never  done  so — as  she  has  never  put  such  an  absurd 
restriction  upon  the  liberty  of  her  children,  but  allows  every 
one  'to  open  his  griefs  '  to  a  minister  as  freely  as  he  opens 
his  mouth,  and  to  receive  his  absolution  as  freely  as  he  receives 
his  'counsel' — we  can  appeal  to  her  formularies  as  suffi- 
ciently accurate  with  regard  to  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  con- 
fession. 

"  In  short,  my  doctrine  is,  with  regard  to  this  matter,  that  a 
communicant  viay,  and,  under  certain  circumstances,  ought, 
to  come  to  some  suitable  minister,  that  he  may  '  open  his 
grief,'  which  I  take  to  be  virtually  'confession;'  and  that 
having  thus  confessed  so  as  to  satisfy  his  minister  of  the  sin- 
cerity of  his  repentance,  he  may  receive,  and  the  minister 
ought  to  grant,  '  the  benefit  of  absolution,'  This  is  the 
length  and  breadth  of  my  belief  or  doctrine  on  the  subject. 

"To  all,  whatever  maybe  their  name  or  sect,  who  will  give 
me  a  fair  hearing  before  they  judge,  I  commend  the  following 
tract ;  not,  of  course,  as  an  authority  in  itself,  or  as  a  thing 
that  I  indorse  in  every  phrase,  but  as  a  clear  and  honest  state- 


2^8 


LENTEN  LECTURES. 


ment  of  Anglican  standards  on  the  subject  involved,  and  as 
showing-  that  good  men  of  all  professions  and  schools  have 
substantially  borne  the  same  witness. 

"If  this  is  not  enough,  I  respectfully  invoke  all  who  are  yet 
dissatisfied  to  explain  to  the  Church,  What  is  the  Catholic 
doctrine  of  confession  ?  What  the  Roman  ?  What  the  An- 
glican ?  What  the  points  of  difference  among  the  three,  and 
wherein  I  am  held  to  differ  from  all  or  either  ?  It  is  surely 
time  to  be  done  with  child's  play — this  mere  game  of  '  bluff' 
in  matters  of  religious  faith.  Let  our  opponents  come  out 
like  men,  and  tell  us,  not  what  to  dodge,  but  what  to  be- 
lieve. Let  us  turn  over  a  new  leaf,  beginning  with  this  deeply 
interesting  subject  of  confession  and  absolution.  Let  us  learn 
what  our  Church  teaches  ;  and  if  she  teaches  amiss,  let  us 
honestly  confess  it." 

Mr.  Gray  gives,  in  support  of  his  thesis,  the  fol- 
lowing names : 


INDEX    TO   QUOTATIONS. 


First  Exhortation  to  Holy  Com- 

muiiion. 
Office  for  Visitation  of  Sick. 
113th  Canon. 
Luther. 

Hooker  011  Lutherans. 
Melanchthon. 
Calvin. 
Cranmer. 
The  Catechism. 
First  Prayer  Book. 
Ridley. 
Latimer. 
Turner. 
Jewel. 


Second  Book  of  Homilies. 

Parker's  Visitation  Articles. 

The  Eleven  Articles. 

Bacon, 

Hooker. 

King  James  I. 

Williams. 

Reynolds. 

Hakewill. 

Aylmer. 

Crakan  thorp. 

Andrewes. 

Donne. 

Baily. 

Downame. 


APPENDED   NOTES. 


239 


Mede. 

MontagTie. 

Visitation  Articles,  Overall,  etc. 

Hammond. 

Heylin. 

Laud. 

Bramhall. 

19th  Irish  Canon. 

Ussher. 

Herbert. 

N.  Farrar. 

Chilli  ngworth. 

James,  Earl  of  Derby. 

Hall. 

Lady  Capel. 

Lady  Anderson. 

Morton. 

Jeremy  Taylor. 

Sanderson. 

Pierce. 

Thorndike. 

Nicholson. 

Cosin. 

Mr.  Adams'  Sermon. 

Grenville. 

Barrow. 

Evelyn's  Diary. 

Sparrow. 

Puller. 

Comber. 


Pearson. 

Fourteen  Bishops  on  case  of 
Friend  and  Parkins. 

Patrick. 

Dodwell. 

Isham. 

Beveridge. 

Ken. 

Bull. 

Sharpe. 

Hickes. 

Nicholls. 

Marshall. 

Hole. 

Fiddes. 

Wake. 

Seeker. 

Berkeley. 

Wheatley. 

Wilson. 

Home. 

Tomline, 

Marsh. 

Short. 

Hamilton. 

Moberly. 

Confessor  in  King's  House- 
hold. 

Keble  (Note  A). 

Baxter  (Note  B). 


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